


Vengeance and demons

by MsFantasy3



Series: the ink family [2]
Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:35:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 27,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24201424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsFantasy3/pseuds/MsFantasy3
Summary: Six months have past since Bendy had been stabbed and it seems the culprit has escaped prison with a thirst for vengance towards the little devil darling. What will happen to the happy family, knowing that danger is on the loos again.
Series: the ink family [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1746556
Comments: 3
Kudos: 11
Collections: Bendy And The Ink Machine





	1. A Lunatic on the Loose

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: This story series takes places in the 1960s but since my knowledge of that time period is none existent, elements of a modern lifestyle will be used in the story. If questions around the story would occur, you can always send me a private message and ask them, I'll do my very best to answer them. It is also strongly advised to read "the demon hunt" before you read this story, since this is a direct continuation to that fanfic.

It was a stormy night, and a tall, slender, feminine man ran as if his life depended on it. Yelling voices could be heard behind him. There were gunshots and barking dogs. Spotlights searched the ground for the feminine man. A little farther along was the village the man was running towards. He entered the village and ran for a nearby alley; it was abandoned, save for a dumpster he hid inside of. He could hear the humans and the dogs running by.

One of the men however, stopped at the opening of the alley. The feminine man slowly lifted the dumpster lid, just high enough to see the man. The man took out a walkie-talkie; "This is Chris calling to prison headquarters, I'm afraid that lunatic of a cult leader got away."

For a moment it was quiet, nothing but static noise coming from the walkie-talkie. Then it replied, "Prison headquarters to Chris, message confirmed. Here are your new orders; gather the officers and get back to the prison. Tomorrow we'll hang wanted posters in the village and warn the villagers by putting an article in the newspaper."

"New orders acknowledged," Chris replied. He called for his colleagues and headed back for the prison.

The feminine man waited for a while before crawling out of the garbage container. He slowly walked to the entrance of the alley and peeked around the corner; the group of officers and their dogs were heading back towards the prison. He waited till they were out of sight, then he dashed away.

He wanted to go back to the church so badly, but he knew the police would be searching for him there. He sneaked around the village for a while until he ended up on the outskirts. There he found a meadow with a shed at the back. It was still raining and the man was soaked from head to toe. "Well, it couldn't hurt to take a look," he muttered to himself.

He ran towards the shed; fortunately for him it wasn't locked, and when he got inside he knew why—it was abandoned. Some of the windows were broken and the wooden floor creaked here and there, but the shed itself was still in a pretty good shape. The walls were sturdy and the roof wasn't leaking despite the fact that it was storming outside. There was even a big pile of hay in the corner of the shed.

He grabbed a bit of the hay and made himself a makeshift bed out of it. He also wanted to make a campfire to create a little more warmth and to dry his prison uniform, but fire would create light and he didn't want to signal the villagers where he was hiding. Still, he needed to take his prison uniform off—it was soaked, and if he left it on he would get sick.

He got undressed, grabbed his wet prison uniform, took a paper out of it and laid it open on the floor. Then he took a large old piece of cloth that was lying in the corner. He walked over to his makeshift bed, laid down on it, and draped the cloth over his naked body.

He looked at the paper that he had taken out of his uniform earlier, and to his relief it was still dry. He unfolded it to reveal a news clipping with the headline, "Bendy, Alice and Boris, the New Inhabitants of our Village". With it there was also a picture of the toons receiving their ID cards.

He remembered reading it for the first time. That was six months ago, when he had just been placed in prison. He was so angry at the cartoon devil that he ripped him out of the picture. That's why he stole the newspaper from his neighbor and cut out the entire news clipping. He'd "borrowed" a red marker from an officer and circled the image of Bendy with it, and underneath it wrote "pure evil".

Every time the man was close to losing hope and felt empty inside, he looked at the picture of Bendy, and it filled him with anger and purpose. He was going to destroy that demon before it destroyed the world. That was what God wanted of him. He folded the news clipping and put it down on the floor next to him.

He looked up at the ceiling and though out loud, "Of course I need to deal with that poor misled man first. That bastard of a devil manipulated him into thinking that he is his father. As long as that man is filled with his delusions, he will try to stop me from destroying that demon. I know what to do, I just need a few hours to prepare."

He started to laugh maniacally as he threw his hands up in the air and exulted, "Dear God, I will fulfill the task that you have assigned to me, revenge will be mine, that demon will DIE!"

Just at that moment, a bright lightning bolt lit up the heavens and the loudest crack of thunder made the village shake.

*At that exact same point in time, in Bendy and Boris' bedroom*

Bendy jolted awake; there was bright lightning and the loud boom of thunder outside. Tears were running down his face and his entire body shook. He looked around the room; Boris was still asleep. A soft smile appeared on Bendy's face, relieved that he didn't wake up the cartoon wolf when he woke up from his nightmare.

It had looked so real, the man that tried to kill him was free again. The little demon guessed he was dreaming—more like having a nightmare.

He slowly crawled out of bed and sneaked towards the window, as to not wake up his best friend. He stared out the window; it was still dark outside. The streets were abandoned and it was so quiet that you could hear every drop of rain fall to the ground. Bendy wiped away the tears that were still running down his cheeks. He liked the sound of rain, it helped him to relax for some reason.

He turned around to look at his bed as he groaned, "I guess no sleep for me tonight." The cartoon demon wasn't really scared anymore, but he had this nagging feeling that something was about to happen. He slowly walked over to the door as he glanced at Boris. The toon wolf was still sound asleep. Bendy chuckled and opened the door as silent as possible, not wanting to wake anyone up, but to his surprise he saw Henry standing in the door to his room across the hall.

"Bendy, you okay? I heard a scream," the old animator said groggily as he rubbed his eyes.

Bendy sighed. "Fudge nuggets! Sorry, Dad... I didn't mean to wake you up."

"It's fine, but why did you scream?"

Bendy looked at the floor in embarrassment, not saying a word. Henry could have sworn that he saw a drop of water falling on the floor. Was Bendy crying?

He looked at the little devil darling with a soft smile. "You had another nightmare, didn't you?"

Bendy didn't dare to look at Henry, but nodded.

Henry gently took Bendy's hand and the duo walked down the stairs. Bendy went to sit on the sofa in the living room and Henry headed for the kitchen. He took two mugs out of the cupboard, filled a cooking pan with milk, and warmed it. He poured the warm milk into the cups, took it to the living room, and sat down next to Bendy. He handed one of the cups to Bendy and watched the little devil blow at the milk to cool it down and drink it. The old animator followed his example.

Henry looked at Bendy again and had to chuckle.

Bendy looked confused at him. "What?"

"You have a milk mustache."

Bendy wiped away the mustache and looked at Henry with his typical cartoony grin. Henry chuckled again as he slowly shook his head. He looked at the little devil and his face turned serious; Bendy noticed this and stared at the floor in response.

Henry placed his hand on the little devil's knee. "You want to talk about it?"

Bendy slowly shook his head as tears ran down his face again. The old animator took the cup from the devil darling and placed it together with his own cup on the coffee table, then lifted Bendy up and placed him in his lap; Bendy buried his head in Henry's chest. Henry started rocking back and forth a little, rubbing Bendy's back. The father started singing:

Ooh, ooh, ooh

Ooh, ooh

Somewhere over the rainbow

Way up high

And the dreams that you dream of

Once in a lullaby

Somewhere over the rainbow

Bluebirds fly

And the dreams that you dream of

Dreams really do come true

Someday, I wish upon a star

Wake up where the clouds are far behind me

Where trouble melts like lemon drops

High above the chimney top

That's where you'll find me...

Henry slowly stopped singing as he noticed that the little devil had fallen asleep. He gently got up with Bendy in his arms and carried the little devil up the stairs, back to his bed. Just as he had placed Bendy under the covers, he could hear a sound from behind him. It was Boris. Henry held his index finger against his lips to tell the wolf to keep it quiet. Boris nodded and went back to sleep. Henry gave the toons each a kiss on the forehead and went back to bed himself.

The following morning, Henry got up early. He went to the bathroom to get ready and finally made his way downstairs, only to find all three the toons already on the sofa, wide awake. Henry stood there in surprise as Bendy grinned at him, Alice and Boris following the little devil's example.

"Geesh, it's about time you got here old man. A second longer and Boris here would have woken you up with a bucket of water," Bendy joked.

Boris looked at Henry and shook his head and hands rapidly, making evident that he wasn't going to do that.

Henry playfully crossed his arms, looking at the little devil with a grin. "First of all, please stop calling me 'old man', I'm not that old. Second, I'm pretty sure Boris is smart enough to realize he can't go near water since he would melt if he did do so, and last but not least, mind telling me what you three are doing up already? This is early, even by your standards."

The toons laughed as they looked at each other and then Henry. It made the old animator feel uneasy.

"Close your eyes," Alice encouraged.

Henry did as he was told. "Okay, what are you three rascals up to?"

He heard the toons giggle as he felt someone grab his hand. By the feeling of it, it was Boris. Henry was guided to what he assumed was the kitchen; the air was filled with the smell of coffee, eggs and bacon.

"Okay Daddy, you can open your eyes on the count of three," the cartoon angel instructed. "One...two...three!"

Henry opened his eyes to find the toons sitting at an already set table; there were four plates with omelets and bacon, and one of them also had a mug of coffee. Henry knew it was meant for him since the toons weren't allowed to drink coffee. The old animator found the cartoons already hyper enough without the extra caffeine, so they each had a glass of orange juice instead.

Henry went to take a seat as he looked at the table in awe. "Did you guys do this all by yourselves?"

The toons smiled and nodded. "SURPRISE!"

"For what?"

"We wanted to thank you, Dad, for taking care of us," Bendy replied.

Henry thanked them and they started eating their breakfast and having fun conversations.

Suddenly the phone began to ring. Henry and the toons locked eyes with each other, not knowing who would call them this early in the morning. Henry got up from his chair and made his way to the living room to answer the phone.

The old animator was gone for almost half an hour, and the toons started to become worried as they could hear Henry raise his voice. Just as they were about to go see why their dad stayed away for so long, Henry came back into the kitchen. He was biting his lower lip and didn't make eye contact with the toons as he sat back down in his chair.

The toons looked at him, and the old animator could feel their curiosity. He sighed. "That was Doctor Johnson. Apparently he's been thinking about you three for a while. After he did the medical tests with the three of you to create your medical files, he came to the conclusion that he needs more ink for if one of you gets hurt. He doesn't like the idea that you keep donating ink to each other like you're each others' private blood-slash-ink bank. Unfortunately, I know he's right. There's only three of you—if two of you got hurt at the same time or if someone became sick, there wouldn't be enough ink to treat all of you."

Henry stared at the toons, who were looking worried. "John has asked if it's possible to go get more ink from where it originated," he continued. "I explained to him that it would be suicide to go back to that hellish studio, I told him everything that had happened there. He understood, but the only other solution he has is if one of you would be willing to donate some ink. He could examine it in the lab and try to recreate it."

Before anyone got the time to react, Bendy had already volunteered. "I'll do it!"

Boris and Alice watched the little devil as Henry asked, "You sure about this Bendy?"

"Look, Alice and Boris already donated ink once to save my life. It's only fair that I should be the one to donate some ink now," Bendy replied.

Henry turned to the cartoon angel and the wolf. "What do you think about this?"

Alice and Boris locked eyes before looking back at Henry. Boris shrugged his shoulders, making clear he didn't mind.

"If that is what Bendy wants, it's fine by me," the cartoon angel agreed.

Bendy smiled at everyone.

"Okay, it's settled then. I'll go make the appointment," Henry stated.

The old animator went to the living room, to the phone again, and this time he only stayed away for five minutes. Henry made his way back to the kitchen and went to sit in his chair.

"Tomorrow at ten a.m., that's when he expects us at his office in the hospital," Henry informed the toons.

The family continued their breakfast, when all of a sudden they heard noise coming from their front door.

"Now what?" the old animator said as he stood up and went to check what the noise was. The toons followed him. He opened the front door to discover that Rudy was trying to pry open their mailbox.

Tina, who was standing right next to her dad, saw the four standing confused at their front door. She nervously pulled on her father's shirt. "Um, Dad?"

Rudy ignored her and continued to work on the mailbox.

"Daddy?"

"Not now honey, I almost got it," Rudy answered.

Henry shook his head and came back to his senses. He cleared his throat. "Can I help you?"

Rudy froze in place. He stayed like that for a while, and then he slowly started to turn around and nervously looked at Henry.

"Hello Henry, nice weather were having today, isn't it?" Rudy said with a nervous grin.

"Oh no mister, don't you dare to change the subject on me. What was that all about?" Henry asked, pointing at the mailbox.

Rudy sighed and asked Henry if he would take the newspaper out of the mailbox. The old animator reached for a key in his pocket and went to the mailbox to take the mail. He went back to the front door and gestured to Rudy and Tina to follow them inside. The group went back to the kitchen, and they all sat around the table.

"Well, I'm listening," Henry demanded.

Rudy pointed at the newspaper.

Henry opened it; the first thing he saw was a large picture of the feminine man that had stabbed Bendy with the headline, "Wanted". Henry stared at the paper in disbelief.

"I wanted to tell you the bad news in person," Rudy explained as he looked sadly at Henry.

The toons saw the newspaper as well. Alice and Boris didn't understand what the problem was, until they noticed that Bendy was shaking. Everyone in the room stared at the little devil, while Bendy was on his turn looking at the picture of the guy that had stabbed him. In a flash, all the events that took place in the church passed before his eyes.

Bendy's head started to hurt, his breathing became faster and he slowly started to back away.

Henry jumped out of his chair and wanted to go to the little devil to comfort him, but before he could react, Bendy had already left the kitchen. The cartoon demon ran to his room as fast he could and locked the door behind him. He leaned his back against the door and let himself slide down. The little devil rested his head on his knees and started to cry.

Henry was about to follow his devil darling, but Rudy stopped him by placing a hand on the old animator's chest, slowly shaking his head. "I think it's better if you give him some space. You know, give him some time to process the bad news," Rudy explained.

"First John and now this." Henry rubbed his temples.

"Wait, Anthony? What has he to do with all this?" Rudy asked.

"Let's just say we've had an eventful morning," Henry replied as he gestured at the sofa, offering a seat to the visitors.

Everyone went to have a seat except Henry, who went to the kitchen to get some beverages for his guests and the toons. He came back to the living room, placed the beverages on the coffee table, and took a seat on the sofa. The old animator explained what had happened before Rudy and Tina had arrived, from Bendy's nightmares to the appointment with John.

Rudy whistled. "Poor Bendy, he's under a lot of pressure."

"I know, but he's not talking to anyone about it; not doctor Johnson, not Boris or Alice, and not even me. But I did have a breakthrough last night—he had another nightmare, and though he didn't want to talk about it, I was able to calm him down when I sang for him. It's not much, but it's a start," Henry replied.

Rudy nodded. "Speaking of Anthony, is it safe for Bendy to go there? You know, with that nutjob on the loose?"

Henry thought about it for a minute. "Well, he's only just escaped, I don't think he's going to show his face anytime soon. If he's smart he'll probably wait till things have cooled down a bit. Besides, everyone's looking for him, it's not like he can just wander around without people noticing him. However, to be sure, I want to update our security system a bit, just in case. Unfortunately, I would need some time to do so and Bendy has that appointment tomorrow."

"Say no more—I'll be happy to take the toons to the hospital for you tomorrow. At least, if that's okay with them," Rudy stated.

They looked at Alice and Boris; they had the biggest grins and puppy dog eyes on their faces as they looked at Tina. who was staring back at them with a big smile. Henry and Rudy had to laugh.

"Guess that's settled then," Rudy chuckled, ruffling his little girl's hair.

Henry looked at his watch; they had been talking for nearly two hours and Bendy was still locked in his room.

"I think I'm going to go give him the update," Henry said, pointing at the ceiling.

The gang nodded. Henry made his way up the stairs, going straight to Bendy and Boris' room.

"Bendy? Everything okay in there?" Henry asked, knocking on the door.

It was silent. The old animator sighed; he went to sit on the floor with his back against the door, not knowing that he was sitting back to back with his little devil darling. Not sure if Bendy heard him or not, he started to explain the fact that Rudy would take them to the hospital tomorrow, while he would stay home to update their security system. All of a sudden Henry heard the door unlock, but it stayed closed.

The old animator was confused. He stood up and slowly opened the door to find Bendy sitting on his bed with his legs pulled up and his face resting on his knees. A soft smile appeared on Henry's face. He walked over to the little devil's bed, picked him up, sat on the bed himself and placed Bendy in his lap. Just like last night, Henry slowly rocked back and forth while he hummed the song. This time he also stroked the cartoon devil's horns—Bendy downright loved it when someone rubbed his horns, it felt great.

Finally the cartoon demon spoke. "I'm sorry that I locked myself in my room."

"Don't be, it's normal to want some time for yourself to sort things out. I just want you to know that whatever is going on, you can always talk to us. You know that, right?"

Bendy slowly nodded. "It's just... I was scared, when I saw his picture, it was just as if everything that had happened in that church was happening again."

Henry was surprised—that was the first time Bendy actually talked about his feelings. Bendy was actually opening up to him. The old animator wrapped his arms around the little devil, hugging him. "Don't worry, I won't let him hurt you. I promise."


	2. A Disturbing Disappearance

Henry and Bendy made their way downstairs as the group was staring at them. Bendy noticed this, and there was an awkward silence as he looked at the group, rubbing his arm in embarrassment. "Sorry I made you guys worry, I needed some time to think." 

Relief washed over the group's faces. Alice replied, "Hey, don't worry about it, we understand. We just want you to know we're here for you." 

The cartoon devil grinned. "Sheesh, I know already, Dad told me the same thing. You guys are starting to sound like a broken record." 

Everybody chuckled. Henry and Bendy went to sit on the sofa and the gang were talking and telling jokes the rest of the day. Evening came and Rudy and Tina had to go home—it was already past Tina's and the toons' bedtimes. Henry guided his guests outside; his friend had to carry his little girl to the car. 

Once the duo had left, the old animator went back inside, only to find the little devil already asleep on the sofa. Alice and Boris were smiling at him. 

"I can't blame him. He didn't sleep much last night, and after all the events of today I think he is finally drained enough to fall asleep." Henry carried Bendy on one arm, letting the demon rest against his shoulder as he noticed Boris yawning. He grinned. "Okay you two, up you go. Come on, it's time for bed." 

The family went upstairs and went to their rooms. The old animator carried the little devil to his bed. "Boris, would you mind pulling away the sheets?" 

The cartoon wolf nodded and did what was asked of him, after which Henry gently laid Bendy in bed and tucked him in, trying not to wake him up. Then he did the same for the wolf and angel before finally going to bed himself. He turned in early so he could see the toons before they went to the hospital. Besides, he would need time to update the security system. 

Everyone soon drifted off to sleep as it became quiet in the house 

oOo 

The alarm clock went off; it took Henry a few tries, but he finally succeeded in turning it off. He yawned and stretched when he got out of bed and made his way to the boys' room. the animator silently opened the door and sneaked towards the window, opening the curtains and letting a beam of sunlight fill the room. "Okay sleepyheads, wakey wakey." 

The wolf and devil sat up in bed, rubbing their eyes. 

"Oh come on old man, just a few more minutes," Bendy said groggily as he let himself fall back on his pillow again with his eyes closed. 

"I wish I could, but you don't want to be late for your appointment, now do you?" 

The cartoon devil opened one eye, looking at Henry. He sighed. "Fine, I'm up. I'll go wake up Alice for you too so you and Boris can start with breakfast." 

"That's really sweet of you Bendy, thank you." 

Henry gave Boris a look and the duo walked towards the kitchen. The animator started to prepare breakfast while the wolf set the table. 

All of a sudden Boris started to tug on Henry's sleeve. 

The animator glanced at him. "What is it, buddy?" 

The wolf gave him a note, which read: 

Is it smart to let Bendy wake up Alice? 

"Why? What's wrong with… oh no..." 

Realization hit Henry when they suddenly hear a loud thud coming from the angel's room, followed by Alice's voice; "BENDY!" 

In a matter of seconds the little devil had dashed down the stairs and run into the kitchen, hiding behind Henry's legs. He was soon followed by a furious Alice. She spotted Bendy hiding behind Henry and ran towards him, but she was stopped by the animator himself. 

"Whoa, whoa, whoa—can somebody tell me what's going on?" 

"Bendy flipped my mattress over and made me fall on the floor," the angel accused. 

The devil immediately defended himself. "It's not my fault you wouldn't wake up, how else was I supposed to get you out of bed?" 

Alice was about to charge at Bendy again, but Henry held his hand against her head to stop her while he placed his free arm in front of Bendy in a protective manner. "Alright, that's enough!" 

The angel huffed and folded her arms in front of her chest with a pout. 

Henry turned to face Bendy, who was looking at him with a cheesy grin as he swayed back and forth with his hands behind his back and twisted a foot on the floor. 

The animator raised an eyebrow at him, hands on his hips, slowly shaking his head in disapproval. "Bendy, that's no way to treat a lady. It was sweet of you to want to help me wake her up, but next time be a bit more gentle, okay? You could have really hurt Alice and you don't want that, now, do you?" 

The demon shook his head, posture drooping. 

Henry continued, "Good, now apologise." 

Bendy went to stand in front of the angel. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you, but I wasn't able to wake you up. Next time I'll be more gentle." 

Alice glared with one eye at the little devil. "You promise?" 

He took the angel's hand and folded his little finger in hers with a smile. "Pinky promise." 

Alice smiled and gave Bendy a hug in response. Henry had to chuckle, and the toons stared at him in confusion. 

"What's so funny, old man?" the cartoon devil asked. 

"The three of you are behaving more and more like siblings every day. It's kinda cute when I think about it." 

The three toons started to blush, eventually they went to sit at the table and got breakfast. When they were done, they went to the bathroom upstairs to brush their teeth and get ready. By the time they got down again Rudy and Tina already had arrived. 

The girl ran towards the toons, who happily embraced her as she did so. "Group Hug!" 

Henry and Rudy laughed at the heartwarming sight—Tina had managed to tackle the wolf, angel, and devil to the ground by the impact of the hug; they giggled. 

The old animator looked at the clock as he said, "Okay guys, time to go, don't wanna be late for the appointment. Besides, I have a busy schedule." 

They got on their feet and Henry made his way toward the toons. He gave Boris and Alice a hug and finally went to kneel on one knee in front of the little demon. He placed a hand on the toon's horns. "You be good now Bendy, let Anthony do his work. I wish I could be there with you, but this is really important. I'll be there in mind though. You'll do great, okay?" 

Bendy nodded with a smile. The toons walked to Rudy and the group made their way outside. The little devil was the last to leave the house; he glanced towards his father one last time and saw Henry waving at him. Bendy smiled and waved back, then he closed the front door and went to join the rest. The group got into the car and drove to the hospital. 

Upon arrival they went straight to Anthony's office, as the toons knew the way. When they stopped in front of his door they could hear a loud, deep voice. "SO WHAT? PEOPLE SAY ALL THE TIME THAT I ACT LIKE I DON'T CARE! THE THING IS, I'M NOT ACTING. LOOK, TELL HIM HE CAN KISS MY ASS, I HAVE AN IMPORTANT APPOINTMENT AND I'M NOT MISSING IT FOR MISTER FRANKENSTEIN!" 

Rudy and the toons locked eyes with each other and shrugged their shoulders. The adult knocked on the door and peeked through. "Um, are we coming at a bad time? It is ten a.m., right? I was told you had an appointment with Bendy?" 

Doctor Johnson had just placed the horn back on the phone, and he gestured to the group to take a seat. "Oh, hello Rudy. Not that I'm not glad to see you, but I was expecting Henry to be honest." 

"Yeah, well, due to certain circumstances Henry had to make other plans today, so he asked me to come by with the toons instead," Rudy explained, glancing at the little demon. 

"Right, I think I read about it this morning. No matter though, this shouldn't take too long. Are you ready?" Anthony asked the toon. 

Bendy smiled and nodded. 

The doctor got up and made his way to the door. "Alrighty then, you can follow me, we'll get you settled nice and comfy and it will all be over before before you can say 'Merry Melodies'." 

Anthony guided them to the blood donation room; Alice and Boris recognised it from back when they'd had to donate ink to save Bendy's life. Doctor Johnson made his way to one of the blood transfusion chairs as Bendy followed him. The little devil's body was just a bit too small and the group had to hold back their laughter as they watched Bendy crawl onto the chair like a little kid. 

The demon had noticed, however. "Oh haha, very funny. It's not my fault the old coot designed my legs this short." 

"Come on Bendy, it isn't that bad. We're not laughing with you, we were laughing with what you were doing. Besides, you're a toon, isn't it in your nature to make people laugh?" Rudy said with an apologetic smile. 

"I guess so," the demon sighed. 

Doctor Johnson got the materials to fill up two bags with Bendy's ink. He attached a needle to a small size medical grade silicone rubber tube, which was in turn connected to a bag that was placed on some kind of monitor machine next to the chair. "Okay, you ready?" 

Bendy looked at the needle. "Jeesh doc! What, were the biggest needles taken?" 

"Yes, as a matter of fact. Don't worry though, you won't feel a thing." 

The little devil gulped as Anthony moved the needle closer to the bend of his left arm. He flinched as the needle penetrated the solid ink that functioned as his skin. 

The doctor noticed this. "Did it hurt?" 

"No, it was just a weird experience, that's all." 

Alice looked with a raised eyebrow at the demon. "Weird? Bendy, you had a needle in your arm for two days when Boris and I donated ink to you." 

Anthony laughed. "True, but it's not like he was awake when we inserted the needle in his arm, and once it's in its place you can barely feel it, so technically this is new to him." 

"Oh… okay then. It isn't too bad, right Bendy?" Alice asked 

The cartoon demon's breathing started to quicken, though. Anthony noticed. "You okay there, pally?" 

Bendy slowly nodded. "J-just a bit light in my head, t-that's all." 

The groop looked with worried faces at the doctor for an explanation as Bendy's breathing became so fast he was almost hyperventilating. 

"Okay, Bendy? I need you to calm down, breathe slowly, in and out. I'm going to lower the backrest of the chair a bit so you will lie down, don't be alarmed, okay?" Anthony said while he made sure the cartoon devil was in a lying position. 

"What's going on? Is there something wrong with him?" Tina asked. 

The doctor tried to reassure the gang. "No, no, he's fine. We see this happen a lot." He rubbed his chin in thought when he faced the little cartoon demon. "Bendy, are you scared of needles by any chance?" 

"I-I don't know. H-Henry's worked with needles when sewing his clothes, I was fine then. T-this on the other hand, m-makes me feel weird and uncomfortable." 

"Uh-huh, that's called being scared. It appears you have trypanophobia." 

"Trypano-what now?" 

"Trypanophobia! That's a difficult term for needle phobia, it's the extreme fear of medical procedures involving injections or hypodermic needles. Wait, if you didn't know that, then that would mean… you've never had an injection before?" 

Bendy eyed the doctor. "I'm a toon, doc. Normally, we don't get sick or hurt. That changed when we were brought to reality, though. To answer your question, no, I never got the needle before. The first time I ever got hospitalised was when my body got pierced by a dagger and like you said yourself, I was out cold when you placed the thing in my arm, I only knew about it when the nurse removed it." 

Rudy whistled. "Oh boy… and you still have one bag to go after this one is full." 

The cartoon demon raised a hand and shook his head. "Uh-uh, don't talk about it… There's no needle in my arm." 

The group looked at the little devil as he was lying on the chair with his eyes closed, still breathing rather fast. They decided to change the subject for the devil's sake and wait till the bag was full. 

Rudy felt the beeper on his belt vibrate all of a sudden. "Oh come on, not now." 

Tina looked at her daddy. "Do you need to go to work?" 

"I don't know honey, I'm going to need to make a call." Rudy looked at Anthony. "Is there a phone around here I can use?" 

"Yeah sure, there's one in the hallway at the nurses office. You can ask there." 

"Thanks." And with that the police officer left the room. 

Twenty minutes later, he came back into the room, everybody staring at him in curiosity. "It was the chief. Apparently there was a robbery at the local convenience store. The perpetrator stole money, rope, a Bible, clothes, and shoes. He's letting me stay with you guys till you're back home, but then I need to go investigate." 

The group locked eyes with each other at the mention of the bible. 

"Could it be him?" Alice whispered, making sure Bendy wouldn't hear her. The devil already had enough on his plate with the needle in his arm. 

Rudy shook his head slowly. "Don't know yet, I'll need to investigate first, but things sure look like it." 

"What's the dream team whispering about?" the cartoon devil asked, still keeping his eyes closed. 

Rudy sighed. "Nothing Bendy, just talking about my work. You know, boring stuff." 

Bendy opened his eyes to look at Rudy; he didn't look too convinced. 

"Oh hey, would you look at that, it seems the bag is full. I'm going to switch it," Dr Johnson tried to change the subject. 

The cop nodded in appreciation, as Bendy quickly closed his eyes again, grabbing both armrests of the chair tightly. "Please don't tug on that tube to hard, last thing I want is to feel that needle move around in my arm." 

"Oy, I don't mind being careful, but you better stop sweating ink or you're going to have anemia," Anthony said as he saw ink dripping down Bendy's forehead. 

***meanwhile with Henry*** 

"Okay, let's see… I updated the videosoftware for the security cameras, I installed the new sensors for the silent alarm, and I changed the code for the ordinary alarm... I guess we're good to go. If I had known that it would be fixed this fast I would have gone with the toons to the hospital. Oh well, I'm sure Rudy has everything under control," Henry said as he finished up his work. 

He got his tools and took them to the garage, placing them in their regular spot on the workbench, which was neatly installed against the wall opposite the garage door. Once everything was stored up, he made his way towards the livingroom to the small control panel attached to the wall and typed the new security code to activate the security system. 

All of a sudden Henry heard a thud from upstairs. He slowly walked until he stood at the base of the stairs. "Hello? Is someone up there?" 

Nothing. The animator scratched his head as he was greeted by silence. Not trusting the situation, he made his way up the stairs. He went toward Boris and Bendy's room since the sound came from there, but upon entering it he saw nothing out of the ordinary. The window was open to let in some fresh air but other than that, everything was were it was supposed to be. 

Henry got to the window to close it, when all of a sudden the door slammed shut. 

The animator was startled and started to breath heavy as he demanded, "Who's there?! This isn't funny! …My friend is a cop!" 

Again the animator was faced with silence. He opened the door of the room when he heard another thud, from downstairs this time. Henry went to his room and got a baseball bat he had lying around from all the way back when he was still a kid, and made his way down the stairs, ending up in the livingroom. 

No one was there, but he could see a piece of paper lying on the floor. He walked towards it and picked it up. Upon closer inspection, he noticed it was a newspaper article. His eyes went wide as he saw his three beloved cartoons in a photo in the article. "I remember this, this is from six months ago…" 

An intense wave of pain went trough Henry's head and his vision became blurry and eventually turned black. He fell to the ground, unconscious, to reveal the feminine man standing behind him with a raised frying pan. 

The escaped prisoner had a twisted smile on his face when he took the paper out of the animator's hand. "I'll take that back, thank you." The man noticed the bat lying next to the downed animator. "I'll take this too, if you don't mind." 

The man took a rope and used it to tie up Henry. Then he dragged the unconscious man to a wheelbarrow he had found behind the abandoned shed and used the piece of cloth he had used as a blanket before to cover him up. Fortunately for him it was raining outside, which meant that there weren't many people out on the streets. 

The feminine man pushed the heavy wheelbarrow down the quiet, wet streets of the village, praying to his beloved God that nobody would see him. He looked suspicious with his wheelbarrow, it was exactly a scene from a horror movie where some psychopathic murderer carried a corpse, and the fact that people were looking for him wasn't helping. 

He was no murderer though, he was a hero. The man was only following the will of God almighty, he still didn't understand why people resented him for that. So what if he had to destroy that little devil, it was a demon for crying out loud. He would open the people's eyes, starting with the man in his wheelbarrow. 

When they reached the feminine man's shed, he got inside and placed the one wheeled transportation device on the ground. He made his way towards the door and closed it to keep the cold rain outside. Eventually he went to the wheelbarrow and kicked it over, causing Henry to fall on the ground and roll until he slowly came to a halt, lying on his back. 

The feminine man made his way towards his prisoner and tapped him with the tip of his toes to see if he got a reaction, but it looked like the animator was still unconscious. "I think I may have hit him too hard," he sighed. He placed the wheelbarrow in the corner of the shed and draped the now wet cloth on a string he had tied up like a washing line. After that he went to sit on his makeshift bed. 

It was quiet, the only sounds heard being from the rain and thunder outside, the regular dripping of water that fell from the wet cloth onto the wooden floor, and the calm, soft breathing of the two men. The feminine man waited patiently for his prisoner to wake up. 

***meanwhile, back in the hospital*** 

Bendy was trembling and breathing fast. "C-come on doc, you said this wouldn't t-take long… is the bag still not full?" 

"I know Bendy, just stay calm okay? You're almost done," Anthony replied. 

"Y-you said that ten m-minutes ago." 

"Bendy, I had literally just switched the bags back then. I think two more minutes should do the trick." 

The little devil's breathing got even faster, and he finally reached the hyperventilating stage. "A-ARE…YOU…K-KIDDING…ME!?" 

"BENDY CALM DOWN, BREATHE!" 

The cartoon demon shook his head. "G-GET…IT…OUT…NOW!" 

"Bendy, listen closely; I want to remove the needle but you need to breath first and calm down." Dr. Johnson placed a hyperventilation mask over the demon's mouth. It looked like an oxygen mask but with a plastic bag attached to it; the bag captured Bendy's breath, forcing the toon to breathe the air in again. 

Anthony looked at Rudy. "Can you please help me hold him still? If I were to remove the needle while he's like this I might damage one of his veins." 

Rudy came sprinting over and placed his arms around the cartoon devil's upper body and left arm, but Bendy was even more scared by what Anthony had just said and started kicking his legs. "GET IT OUT!" 

All of a sudden Boris came running over and held Bendy's legs in place without needing to be asked. The cop and the doctor nodded in appreciation. 

As quick as he could, Anthony grabbed some medical tweezers and gently used them to pull the needle out of Bendy's arm. "Bendy it's okay, it's out, see?" 

The cartoon demon started to calm down as the doctor placed a compress on the spot where the needle had been. Bendy's breathing was a little shaky. Anthony looked at him. "Are you okay?" 

"Um… I don't feel so good." Out of nowhere the cartoon demon closed his eyes as his head lolled to the side. 

"Aaand, he's out," Doctor Johnson sighed. He noticed the toons and Tina looking worried. "No worries, it's just a side effect from the hyperventilation attack, he'll be fine." 

Rudy whistled. "Sheesh, I would hate being in your shoes when he needs a vaccine." 

Anthony grabbed a small glass bottle of smelling salts and held it before the demon's face. 

The little demon moaned as he slowly opened his eyes. 

"There he is… Bendy, can you hear me?" the doctor asked. 

The cartoon devil nodded slowly. "W-what happened?" 

"You had a panic attack, which made you hyperventilate, and because of that you lost consciousness." 

Bendy had a disgusted expression as the small bottle was still in front of his face. Anthony suddenly felt something wrap around his wrist, dragging the hand with the smelling salts away. It took a moment before the doctor realised it was some kind of black rope coming from Bendy's body. 

"W-what in the hell?" Anthony exclaimed 

Even Rudy and Tina were shocked as they saw the black rope coming from the cartoon demon. "Y-you have a tail?" the three asked in unison. 

Bendy had his typical grin, as he took the mask with the bag from his face with his right hand. The black rope let go of the doctor's wrist, revealing itself to be a black tail with an arrowhead at the end of it. 

The doctor shook his head in disbelief. "H-how is that even possible? We took photos of your skeletal structure, that tail wasn't there before." 

Bendy slowly flicked his tail back and forth. "What, this thing? I can retract it if it bothers you that much." 

"Wait…YOU CAN RETRACT IT?" 

Bendy nodded as the tail became shorter and shorter till it was completely gone. The three humans in the room just stood there, mouths agape. Boris and Alice had to keep themselves from laughing. 

The cartoon demon explained; "When Henry first designed me, he had drawn me with a tail. Joey didn't like it, so they erased it with the release of my official design, but I can control ink, which means I can make it appear and disappear at will, since we're made out of that stuff." 

The doctor looked at Alice and Boris. "Can you do this too, but like with angel wings or a wolf tail or something?" 

The toons shook their heads as Alice explained, "No, we were designed like this from the start. Besides, Boris got the cuteness, I got the beauty, and Bendy got the ink powers." 

"So only Bendy can do this?" 

Alice and Boris locked eyes with each other. They were kind of uneasy, but eventually nodded. They were thinking about the inky, demonic counterpart of Bendy, still wandering Joey's hellhole. 

Anthony sighed. "I think I'm going to have a word with Henry next time I see him." 

"Oh come on doc, give the old man a break. He has other things on his mind since he went through a lot, I'm sure Dad just forgot to tell you," Bendy defended the old animator as he tried to sit up. 

Anthony placed his hand on the demon's chest to keep him down. "No, no, no, no, no, you need to stay down for a minute, make sure you're okay, then you can sit up. You're right though, I'm gonna give Henry a break, just this once. Is there anything else he forgot to tell me? It's not easy for us to treat toons, you know, let alone if they have secret body parts or powers." 

"Not that I know of, no. This whole getting hurt and becoming sick business is new to us too. Like I said, cartoons normally don't get sick or hurt, unless it's written in a script. You are legit the first doctor we've ever had." 

The doctor couldn't believe his ears. "Well then, I guess this means I'm officially legit the first toon doctor out there, no pressure." 

"Yeah, well, unless there are other toons coming to this dimension, creating some cartoon-human hybrid world, you will be the only cartoon doctor, period. Now can I sit up?" 

The doctor let the statement sink in as he helped Bendy sit up. "Okay then, let's see." Anthony looked at the bag with the ink and noticed it was completely full. "Huh, would you look at that. You were squirming so hard that by the time I was able to remove the needle, you managed to completely fill the bag. I told you it would have taken only two minutes." 

"Oh haha, what a joker. You do realise I'm never doing this again?" 

Anthony raised an eyebrow at the demon. "Not even to save the lives of Alice and Boris?" 

The little devil looked at his two cartoon friends, who were more like siblings by this point, as they in turn looked at him with sympathetic smiles. Bendy sighed. "Only if it's necessary." 

"That's the spirit. Oh, one more thing, can I see your tail again, please?" 

Bendy fidgeted with his fingers as he asked with a forced laugh, "Why?" 

"I'm your doctor… I kinda need to know your body structure to be able to treat you. I just need to know more about the tail, like if it has any weak points, how does it function or how strong it is, etc., that's all." 

The little demon sighed. As he got out of the blood donation chair the tail reappeared again, swiping around the place. 

"Good, okay, let's see. This might be unpleasant," the doctor warned as he suddenly pulled on the tail. 

"Yeow!" Bendy yelped as he jumped in the air. The little demon got back to his feet as he yanked his tail out of Anthony's hand and started to rub on it to ease the pain. "Oy, warn me next time you do that, at least count to three or something." 

The doctor noted something on a clipboard. "Huh? Oh yeah, sorry… Tail has bone structure and nerves…is sensitive... Okay, can you lift this with your tail for me, please?" 

Anthony dragged himself forward, setting a weight of twenty-five kilos in front of the toon with both hands which he got from an examination room down the hall. 

Bendy cocked his head. "Um, I don't see the use of it, but okay." The demon wrapped his tail around the weight and had no problems whatsoever lifting it. The eyes of the three humans went wide. The little demon was surprised by their reaction. "What, did I do something wrong?" 

"Bendy, that's twenty five kilos. I had to use both hands to put that in front of you and you're swinging it around as if it weighs nothing." 

"That's because it does weigh nothing." Bendy walked to Anthony, wrapped his tail around the man's middle, and lifted him with almost no effort. 

"Okay, okay, you made your point. PUT ME DOWN!" 

The cartoon devil did as he was told, and the doctor dusted himself off and made more notes on the clipboard. "Show off… Warning: tail very strong." 

And with that, the examination was finished. The ink was sent to the laboratory and the new data of Bendy's fear of needles and tail was added to his medical file. "If I get any news I'll let Henry know. Until then, I wish you all the best of luck." Anthony said his goodbyes and made his way towards the laboratory himself to start tests on the ink and study it. 

Rudy, Tina, and the toons got to the car and made their way towards Henry's house. Upon arrival, they found the front door ajar, which immediately aroused suspicion. The group got out of the car and made their way towards the house with Rudy in the lead, his service weapon at the ready. The cop opened the front door completely, only for the new updated alarm to go off. 

The sound of the alarm was loud and made the people of the street come over to see what the ruckus was all about. 

The group got inside the house and soon discovered Henry was missing.


	3. The Three Sleuths

Henry slowly opened his eyes, his vision still blurry and his hearing almost muted. A high pitched tone was ringing in his ears. The feminine man noticed his prisoner making slight movements, signalling that his captive was awake. As the animator's senses sharpened, he noticed he wasn't able to move as something was wrapped around his body; it was a rope.

"Had a nice dream?"

Henry flinched at the sudden sound of the voice. That voice, he had heard it before—but where? Even as he was tied up like a caterpillar, the animator succeeded in rolling on his left side so he was able to face his kidnapper. One glance was all Henry needed to remember where he had seen this man, the same man who had jabbed a knife into Bendy's chest, the same man who had tried to take his son away from him.

A whirlwind of hate, disgust, but also a hint a fear, went through Henry as he gritted his teeth and gave his captor a piercing raging stare. "YOU!"

The feminine man sighed. "I have a name, you know. It's Isaac."

"I DON'T CARE WHAT YOUR GOD DAMN NAME IS, YOU CAN BE CALLED 'PIECE OF SHIT' FOR ALL I CARE!" Henry growled.

It was silent for a minute. Without saying a word, Isaac left his makeshift bed and slowly walked up to the animator. With no warning whatsoever, he kicked Henry in his stomach to a point where the man coughing up blood, a trickle running from the corner of his mouth down his chin, until a large drop fell to the wooden floor between the smaller splashes of blood from the cough.

Isaac crouched in front of his prisoner and grabbed Henry's chin, making him look into his eyes. "DON'T EVER INSULT THE LORD AGAIN!"

Henry spat the collected blood in his mouth into Isaac's face. Isaac jumped up, quickly wiping away the blood. "Right, it seems you need a minute to cool down. Allow me to assist you."

There was what appeared to be an old bathtub, neatly placed against the wall opposite of the door. Isaac had found it outside in the meadow—he guessed the former owner of the shed had used it as a drinking trough for his animals. Before he had gone to get his prisoner, he had dragged the tub all by himself into the shed, which was quite difficult since the tub was filled with fresh rainwater. But it seemed the water was coming to good use.

The feminine man dragged Henry across the hard wooden floor by the collar of his shirt, towards the tub. Then he lifted the animator and placed his chest on the edge of the bathtub, and pushed Henry's head underwater. The animator, who wasn't prepared for this action, quickly lost his breath but wasn't able to do anything about it since he was still tied up. A burning sensation came creeping into Henry's chest and he started to become lightheaded.

Two minutes had passed before Henry felt a yank on his shirt, bringing his head above water, and his body was thrown on the floor like a ragdoll. The animator took in huge gasps of air between coughing up the water that had managed to enter his windpipe. His chest and throat felt like they were on fire.

He was breathing heavy as Isaac asked, "And? Were you able to cool down?"

Out of fear of his captor's harsh punishments, Henry just nodded.

"Good. I want you to know one thing, mister Stein; I am not your enemy. You are just lost, a poor misguided traveler who didn't see the light and lost his way. No worries though, I'll help you back on the path and see the light."

The animator didn't say a word, but God, this man reminded him of Sammy Lawrence. What was it with these people and their cults? Did they get a trophy for creating one? It didn't matter at this point. All Henry knew was that he'd found himself in some deep shit.

***meanwhile at Henry's house***

The toons and Tina covered their ears as Rudy desperately tried to shut of the alarm; it had been going off for half an hour now and people were starting to get annoyed, but Rudy wasn't able to find the right code.

Having enough of the ruckus, Bendy suddenly ran to Rudy's side. "Here, allow me to shut it off for you."

Rudy looked at him with doubt written on his face. "Wait... You know the new codes that Henry has installed while we were gone?"

"Codes, shmodes! I don't need a stinking code." Rudy didn't understand what he meant, when all of a sudden Bendy reached his right hand behind his back. When the devil's hand appeared again, he was holding a giant wooden hammer.

The cop stood agape. "H-how…where...?"

Rudy did not get a chance to finish his question as a loud bang echoed through the room. It was silent. The alarm finally stopped and nobody dared to make a sound as they had no idea what the hell was going on.

"BENDY STEIN! WHAT DID YOU DO?" Alice suddenly yelled.

Bendy sighed as he gave Alice an annoyed look. "What? I got the alarm to stop, didn't I?"

Boris shook his head in disappointment and tapped his foot impatiently on the floor, pointing at the wall where the codepad for the alarm had been. Bendy turned around to see not only the codepad smashed to bits on the floor, but also a giant hole in the wall where the device used to be.

Realisation smacked the little devil in the face. He turned to face Alice and Boris with a sheepish grin. "You, um...you think Dad will notice?"

The angel and the wolf simultaneously facepalmed.

"Well duh, look at the wall Bendy! it looks just like swiss cheese with cracks in it. You have to be pretty much blind to miss that," Alice said as she exaggeratedly pointed at the wall.

Bendy flinched at the outburst, both face and body drooping. "I'll…I'll fix it."

The demon flinched a second time as he felt a hand on his shoulder; it was Rudy's.

"And I'll help you with that, but for now we need to find Henry first."

Without any warning, the group became tense as they heard someone coming into the house.

"Whoa, whoa, easy, it's just me," a familiar voice said; it was none other than the chief officer.

Rudy was perplexed. "Ch-chief? What are you doing here?"

"I should ask you the same thing, you know. Shouldn't you be investigating those store burglaries by now? I mean, I know I gave you permission to take Henry's toons to the hospital, but I'm pretty sure filling a bag of blood—sorry, ink—doesn't take THAT long. Besides, we got a few calls about a noise disturbance. Something about an alarm going off? So, I came to see what was going on myself."

"I-I know chief, but we have some big trouble—Henry seems to have disappeared on us. When we came back from the hospital, the front door was ajar, and it's not like Henry to be so careless as to leave his front door open, especially not now. When I went to go inside to investigate the alarm went off, but since Henry updated the alarm I didn't knew the code to deactivate it."

"Well, that answers why you're still here and the calls about the alarm then. Seems you were finally able to shut it off though. Nice job Rudy, I didn't see you as a hacker."

Rudy glanced at Bendy with a nervous chuckle; it seemed the chief officer hadn't noticed the cracked hole in the wall.

The chief continued. "Okay so… it's safe to assume something happened to that maniac friend of yours. I mean, this just can't be a coincidence—first that psychopath escapes prison and now their creator disappeared. You don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure this one out."

"True, but there's still something bugging me."

"And what would that be?"

Rudy stared at Bendy to the point where it made the demon feel uncomfortable. He pointed at him as he said, "I thought that guy was out to destroy him. What in the hell does he need Henry for?"

"Hmm, you've got a point." The chief contemplated while rubbing his chin; "Now that you mention it, back when we were in the church it seemed that Henry put up quite the fight with the cult members—by the time we were there they were all out cold except for the leader. It's possible that he sees Henry as a threat. Maybe he wants to deal with Henry first before he takes care of the little devil?"

The toons stared at the police chief in shock.

"So…so…our dad is gone because of me?" Bendy asked with a somber tone, his lower lip trembling.

The chief officer realised that he should not have said his thoughts out loud where the toons could hear him. "Relax, this guy is a 'follower of God', right? Meaning he's definitely not going to kill him, since that would be considered a terrible sin."

Bendy was overflowing with guilt. He didn't dare to look at Alice and Boris. Why was it that every time something bad happened, it was because of him? Why was he always causing so much pain and trouble for his family? Maybe that man who had tried to kill him was right, maybe he did deserve to die. The cartoon demon didn't realise that he was clenching his hands into fists and that his entire body was shaking. Not because he was scared—this time it was out of frustration.

Alice and Boris looked each other in the eyes. They were sharing the same thought; they knew Bendy was blaming himself. It was true that Bendy got them in trouble once in a while, but it wasn't like the demon was evil or anything. Sure, Bendy broke stuff and sometimes even hurt them, but he always meant well—they were just accidents or little bit of mischief.

The devil had his good sides too; he was always helped them when they were in trouble, and he would help them with their problems; the angel and wolf didn't blame him one bit for what happened to Henry and they weren't angry, they just wished the little demon would stop blaming himself for everything.

Alice sighed. She slowly walked to the still shaking demon and placed her hand on his cheek, gently turning Bendy's face to look at her. "It's not your fault you know…"

"B-but that man was after me… and because of that he…"

"Look, Bendy, that man shouldn't be after you in the first place. You're a demon, yes we know, but you didn't do anything wrong—well, at least nothing too serious. Nobody is perfect, everybody has done at least one thing bad in their life, but that doesn't mean they are evil. A man who wants to destroy a living being just because he looks different, that is evil. Taking a man from his family against his will is evil. But you? A mosquito is more evil than you."

Bendy chuckled.

"No, I'm serious, they keep you awake at night, buzzing around your head, sucking your blood, and when you try to find them they disappear. It's like they're taunting you…PURE EVIL!"

Alice was surprised as Bendy suddenly grabbed her in a hug. "Thanks sis, I needed that."

The angel returned the hug as Bendy noticed Boris staring at them with a soft smile. Bendy had his typical grin back as he gestured to the wolf to come over. "Come on bro, you too. Let's hug it out." Boris smiled as he came over, and Alice and Bendy drew him into the hug.

When they broke the hug, the angel and wolf stared at the little devil with a grin. Bendy was confused. "What?"

"So… you're calling us sis and bro now, huh? I guess Dad was right, maybe we are starting to behave like siblings. I must admit, it has a nice ring to it."

The little demon blushed—he hadn't really been thinking when he'd called Alice 'sis' and Boris 'bro', but if they didn't mind being called like that, then Bendy didn't either.

Alice had noticed Tina staring at her for a while now. "Is something wrong, sweetie?"

"You have blood? I thought you guys were made out of ink."

The cartoon angel was dumbfounded by the remark of the little girl. "Y-yes, we are, we don't have blood, we have ink. You've seen Bendy donate some to Dr. Johnson, right?"

"Then how do you know about mosquitoes? If you're made out of ink, they shouldn't be bothering you."

The toons chuckled as Alice replied, "Oh, is that it? Don't worry about it, they don't bother us, but our dad keeps complaining about it. That's how we know about them. I was just using them as an example to cheer up Bendy over here."

Tina started to blush. "Oh, yeah, that makes more sense… Sorry."

The cartoon angel just winked at her.

The chief officer interrupted the conversation. "Sorry to interrupt your tea party, but I believe we still have a missing animator. So, here's what we're going to do: Rudy, you are going to investigate the store burglaries. Chances are they were done by the same guy who kidnapped your friend, so we might find clues over there."

"What about us?" Bendy asked.

The chief officer stared at the cartoon trio. "What about you guys? I'm not gonna let civilians help with the investigation. You'll only end up slowing us down—besides, you're also a target for the suspect, remember? If we let you help us with the investigation, that would be the same thing as offering you to the suspect on a silver platter. No, you three stay over here, under police protection. I already sent for someone to come over."

The three toons stared at the chief with piercing glares, their arms crossed in front of their chests. It made the chief officer feel uneasy.

"You can't do that to us! That's our dad you're talking about!" Bendy yelled. Boris and Alice nodded in agreement with the little devil.

"Yes I can, I'm the CHIEF officer. What I say goes, and if I say the three of you are gonna stay here under police protection, you are going to stay here under police protection, even if I need to lock the three of you inside the house."

The trio stared at each other with mischievous grins on their faces. The chief officer didn't like it. "What are you three smiling about?"

The toons looked at the officer as Bendy replied, "You can try locking us up, but you forget one thing."

"What?"

"I'm the ink demon." And with that, inky black veins started to come from underneath the cartoon devil's feet. The veins crawled over the floor, walls, and even the ceiling.

Bendy made his way towards the wall, Alice and Boris following him. The three humans stared in awe, unable to believe their eyes. As Bendy neared the wall, the inky veins started to form a circular shape, creating some sort of inky portal. The cartoon angel and wolf walked into the portal as the cartoon demon turned to the human trio. He grinned at the chief officer amd waved. "Bye-bye." Finally he walked through the portal as well, leaving the three humans flabbergasted.

The chief officer soon came to his senses. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?! Did you know he could do that?"

Rudy held up his hands defensively. "Don't look at me chief, I didn't know he could do that. It's not the first time he's made my jaw drop today. It seems the little guy is full of surprises."

"Yeah, well, they behave just like that maniac friend of yours."

"Well yeah, Henry is their dad after all."

The three toons found themselves in the driveway.

"So, now what?" Alice asked.

"I don't know, I got us out of there, I don't need to do everything, do I?" The little devil said.

Boris suddenly tapped on their shoulders. The angel and demon looked at him; he was pointing at Henry's car parked in the driveway.

Alice was pessimistic. "I don't know Boris, I certainly can't drive."

"Well, I wouldn't mind driving, but my legs are too short, remember?" Bendy continued.

All of sudden the front door flew open, it was the chief officer; "THERE YOU ARE, GET BACK OVER HERE!"

The three toons ran to the vehicle as Bendy said, "Right, car it is!"

Boris was the one behind the wheel since his legs were long enough to reach the pedals, while Bendy sat in the passenger seat and Alice in the back seat. The little demon created a copy of the car key out of ink and plugged it into its slot. The motor roared to life.

The chief started running towards them as Bendy demanded, "What are you waiting for, a start signal? Drive dammit, GO, GO, GO!"

Boris put the pedal to the metal and the car rushed down the driveway. As they were speeding down the street, Alice looked through the back window and saw the chief giving up the chase, throwing his police cap on the ground out of frustration. Rudy and Tina were standing next to him, waving the toons goodbye.

The car disappeared around the corner of the street. Tina lowered her arm and whispered, "Good luck."

As the toons drove through the streets of the village, Bendy thought out loud, "Okay, NOW we've escaped, but the question is, where would Henry be?"

"What about that church where the cult held you captive?" Alice suggested.

"Hmm... I'm pretty sure the police would have checked that place by now—but what the heck, maybe we can find something the police couldn't. I mean, we need to start somewhere. Okay Boris, you heard the lady, let's go to the church."

Boris scratched the back of his head with a doubtful look on his face.

"What is it pally?"

The wolf shrugged his shoulders, making clear he didn't know where the church was.

"Bendy, maybe you should guide the way," Alice suggested. "We haven't been to that church before, we don't know where it is."

The little devil sighed. "In that case, we have a problem. I don't know where it is either."

"But…but you were there."

"Yes, but those creeps anaesthetized me when they brought me to the church, and by the time Henry had gotten me out I had already lost a lot of ink. I was barely conscious."

"Oh, okay then. So what are we going to do?"

"Not much we can do. I suggest that we keep driving until we find the church. I mean, this is just a village, so it shouldn't be that far."

The toons drove for almost an hour, until the Alice saw what appeared to be a church tower peeking over the housetops.

"THERE, THE CHURCH TOWER!" she yelled as she pointed at the building.

"Figures, the angel is the one who finds the house of God," the little devil teased.

Boris chuckled as he drove the car towards the church. As they were pulling onto the parking lot of the building, the car started to rattle until the vehicle came to a halt.

"Not to be a backseat driver Boris, but I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to park here," Bendy informed the wolf.

Boris pointed at the dashboard and the angel and demon looked at what he was pointing to.

Bendy let himself fall into his seat as he murmured, "Great, out of gas. Dang it Henry, you were suppose to refuel the car a few days ago. Now how are we suppose to find you?"

"Hey, don't worry, we'll find him," Alice tried. "I guess we'll need to go by foot, though."

"Yeah, we don't really have a choice, do we? At least the car made it to the church."

The trio got out of the vehicle and walked toward the building. Alice and Boris went through the big wooden double doors, but Bendy froze in front of it. The wolf and angel noticed and turned to face him. Bendy's eyes were wide, his body shaking slightly, and he was breathing too fast. Boris walked up to him and gently rubbed Bendy's back in an attempt to calm him down.

Bendy looked at the cartoon wolf, with a soft smile. "Th-thanks bro, I'm fine though. Let's go inside."

"You sure Bendy? You can wait outside if you don't want to go in there, we understand."

The little demon shook his head. "I'm gonna help find the old coot, no matter what. Besides, I have a reputation to uphold, don't want people to start thinking that demons are afraid of going inside churches."

Alice rolled her eyes and made her way inside. Bendy gulped as he followed her while Boris stayed by his side.

The angel looked around, calling, "Hello? Anyone there?" There was no reply.

Just like before, the room was filled with the smell of incense. Organ music was playing in the background as sunlight brightened the stained glass windows with biblical images. It sent shivers down Bendy's spine, his tail was in between his legs just like a cowering dog, but things were even worse when the little devil laid eyes upon the altar. The same altar he'd been chained to and stabbed on.

It seemed someone had cleaned the ink that had stained it six months ago. There was no trace of the stabbing or the fight between the cult and Henry, but just seeing that altar again was more than the little devil could handle as the events from that day played in front of his eyes once more. Bendy stumbled back, letting himself fall to his knees. He put his hands to his head and started to rock back and forth, tears running down his face.

Alice saw this happen and ran to him. She placed her hands on the demon's shoulders as she tried to comfort him. "Shhh, it's okay Bendy. We're here, you're safe. Everything is just fine, see? There's no one here, just the three of us."

Bendy seemed to calm down. He didn't say a word, but stopped rocking and let his arms hang at his sides. He blinked a few times before he looked up into Alice's eyes.

Before anyone could react, they were startled by a voice. "What's all this ruckus about?"

It was the priest from the church—the toons recognised him from when he had apologised to Bendy, back when the little demon gotten home from the hospital. He was young for a priest, looking like he was around twenty five. He had short brown hair, green eyes with glasses, and was wearing a black suit with the typical white collar.

"Oh, it's you three, what a pleasant surprise. I wasn't expecting visitors but hey, everyone is welcome in the house of God." The priest smiled at the toons, but his expression turned to worry when he noticed Bendy sitting on the floor. "Is he okay? He looks like he saw a ghost or something."

Alice looked up at the priest as she explained, "We're sorry, we didn't mean to make so much noise, we didn't know someone was here. Our brother started panicking when he saw the altar."

The priest kept staring at Bendy. "He's the one who got stabbed here, isn't he?"

The angel and wolf nodded while Bendy remained unmoving. The priest sighed and slowly shook his head. "Poor thing, I'm so embarrassed for what they did to him—and in a church of all places."

Alice and Boris gave him a sympathetic smile. "It is not your fault, Mr. Priest."

"I know, but still, I wish I was here to help him. But what happened in the past is in the past. Now, however, I can offer him a helping hand." The priest slowly made his way toward the little devil and sat down in front of him. Bendy still didn't move. "Hello there my friend, it seems your mind is clouded by darkness, you're scared… There's nothing wrong with that, but I want you to know, there will always be a light to guide you."

Bendy was confused. What was this guy yapping on about?

The priest took Alice's hand and guided her towards Bendy's left side, then he did the same with Boris but to Bendy's right side, then he had the angel and wolf hug Bendy. At first Bendy didn't react, but the hugs felt nice. It made him feel warm inside, it made him feel loved. Again tears ran down his face, but something changed; they weren't tears of fear or sadness, they were tears of joy. The little demon smiled.

"See? You have two lights by your side. No need to be scared, they will be there the entire way. They will be your light, and you will be theirs."

Boris and Alice were surprised as Bendy lifted his arms and placed them around them, hugging them back. The three toons all smiled.

The priest smiled back at them. "Family is a wondrous thing. Take good care of each other."

The little devil looked at the priest. "Thanks, we will."

The priest nodded. It was silent for a moment before Bendy suddenly fell into a laughing fit. Boris, Alice, and the priest didn't understand.

The demon explained himself. "I'm sorry, I just didn't expect to get advice from a priest in a church."

The priest chuckled. "You can call me Charley, Charley Henderson. What else did you expect me to do?"

Bendy grinned. "Well, most of them would go like, THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU!"

Now Charley was the one who started laughing. "Fair enough. The things is, I know you're a demon and all, but from the first time I laid eyes upon you, I could tell you were a good guy."

The little devil stared at him. "How come?"

"Let's be honest, you have special powers don't you? Being a demon and all."

"Yeah, so?"

"I'm pretty sure you would have been able to take those men from the cult out, but you didn't. Why?"

Bendy looked at the floor. Alice and Boris stared at him. "I-I don't know, it didn't feel right. I don't like hurting people."

"I rest my case." Charley smiled at him. He got to his feet and offered the demon his hand.

Bendy looked at him, smiled, and gratefully accepted the man's hand. Alice and Boris followed their example.

"So, tell me, what brings you to the house of God?" Charley asked. The question had been on his mind for a while now. He had said to the cartoons back when they had first met that they were always welcome in the church, but in the past six months he hadn't seen them once. Imagine his surprise seeing all three of them suddenly sitting on the church floor.

Bendy and Alice explained everything, from the escaped cult leader to the disappearance of Henry.

The priest was silent and listened attentively to what they had to say. When they finished, Charley sighed. "Jeesh, that certainly is a lot to take in. You're right though, the police have been here already. I'm gonna tell you the same thing I told them; I'm afraid I have to disappoint you. After the accident with our little friend over here, I decided to spend more time inside the church to make sure nothing like that would happen again. I've been here the entire time and I haven't seen that man once."

The toons were about to give up hope, before Charley added, "However, there's one thing I forgot to tell the police."

The toons where curious, Bendy's tail was swaying in anticipation. The priest walked into the sakrestine while the cartoons waited patiently for his return. Charlie came back with an object—but not just any object, oh no, the little devil recognised it instantly; it was a dagger, the same one the feminine man had used that day—it even still had the ink stains on it.

Charley showed the dagger to the toons. "I hope this will help. I found it when I was cleaning up the church six months ago—I don't know exactly what happened here, other than you being stabbed, but it certainly was a lot of work to clean it up. The chairs were scattered all over the floor, the carpet was stained with blood, and I'm not even gonna start on the condition of the altar."

The priest held the dagger out to the demon, but Bendy was hesitant. Charley realised Bendy may not be the best person to give the dagger to. There was an awkward silence, until Boris took the dagger instead of the little devil.

The priest cleared his throat. "Sorry about that, wasn't thinking things through."

Alice and Boris stared at the dagger; they knew the black substance on it was Bendy's ink, and they were afraid of how the demon would react, but to their surprise, Bendy just slowly shook his head as he replied, "Don't be. It will lead us to our old man. I'm the one who needs to apologize—our dad and I gave you all that cleaning work to do."

Charley grinned. "It's okay, don't worry about it. Like I said, what's in the past is in the past. But I am curious though, how's that dagger going to lead you to your father?"

The toons grinned, Alice and Bendy simultaneously looking at Boris while the little devil said, "We got it covered."

"I'm not sure I follow," the priest confessed.

"Boris here has the best nose in the world. He could track anything with it, doesn't matter how far. Unfortunately, he prefers to waste his amazing ability on tracking food."

"Amazing!"

Boris started to blush, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.

The little demon looked at him with a non-existent eyebrow raised. "How about it Boris, you think you can handle it?"

The cartoon wolf nodded with a grin, confidence radiating from his body.


	4. Reunions

"Bendy, what will we do if Henry's far away? Our car is still out of gas, remember?" Alice reminded them.

"Oh? I can help with that, I have a few jerry cans with fuel in my car, I can give you some," Charley suggested.

The demon grinned. "Welp, that solves that problem."

Alice still had one point to make though. "Yeah, sure, but we still have the problem of who's going to drive; Boris can't drive and track at the same time."

"I'll drive." Bendy's grin grew even wider.

"Um, Bendy, what about your short legs?"

"Oh, that… That's not a problem. Back at the house I was kinda in a panic, so I wasn't thinking straight. I didn't even think about the fact that I can manipulate ink." His sentence wasn't even finished when his legs started to grow and his body stretched until he was the same height as Boris. "Now, let's go get Henry. Can you find the man's scent on the dagger, Boris?"

Before the wolf could react, the angel butted in again. "You sure you can drive?"

Bendy faced her as he placed his index finger in front of his lips in a taunting manner. "Hush, the grown ups are talking."

Alice rolled her eyes. "You're not gonna let the being short thing go, are you?"

"Relax angel, I can't stretch my body like this for very long anyway, it kinda hurts to be fair."

"Just, don't exert yourself," the angel replied on a worried tone.

The demon nodded. The group then made their way to the vehicles and refueled the animator's car. Once the tank was full, Boris handed the now empty jerry cans back to the priest.

Charley smiled at them. "Well then, I guess this is goodbye. First time we met, we didn't really have time to talk—I'm glad I was finally able to meet the three of you."

The trio smiled back at him, while the demon winked. "Same to you, four eyes."

That made Charley chuckle. "Next time, don't wait so long to come over. You're always welcome here, even if it's just to say hi."

"Gotcha, and next time we'll bring our dad, I'm sure he would like you."

"I'm looking forward to it." The priest beamed as he watched the cartoons get into the car.

Boris rolled down his window so he would be able to track the scent while Bendy started the ignition. The toons waved at the priest as the car pulled out of the parking lot, and Charley waved back as he watched the vehicle drive away. Once the car was out of sight, he whispered, "May God be with you." He then went back inside the church.

It was quiet in the car. Bendy glanced at the wolf as he said, "Okay Boris, do your thing."

Boris nodded and sniffed the dagger; from the first sniff he pulled the dagger away from his nose and he made a whining sound.

"Boris? You okay?" Alice asked, leaning forward from the backseat to check on the wolf.

Boris nodded, but glanced at the demon with a sad expression. The little devil didn't notice though, since he was too focused on driving. It appeared that the dagger was covered with Bendy's smell as the little demon's ink was still on it.

Not wanting to disappoint the others, the wolf made a second attempt to sniff the dagger, but this time on the handle side of the object. There was a second scent, one Boris wasn't too familiar with. It had to be the aroma of the guy who had stabbed his little brother, it just had to be. The wolf hung his head out the window, letting his tongue fly out of his mouth as his ears flapped in the wind.

Alice and Bendy chuckled at the sight of their brother acting like a dog. The wolf sniffed the air and soon found the same smell from the handle, instantly making him growl.

"Bingo!" The demon grinned, knowing what the growl meant. "Okay bro, show us the way."

The smell was faint, meaning the owner of the scent was far away, but Boris did as he was told.

***meanwhile in the shed***

Henry was alone; he was tired, in pain, and was still tied up on the floor. Isaac had been reading passages out of the bible while staring at him. It was as if he expected him to scream in pain hearing the biblical text, like he would be possessed or something. Instead, Henry made as if he was bored and had fallen asleep, just to taunt him. As soon as his captor noticed what he was doing, he got annoyed and went outside, saying that he was going to get some food.

Henry wondered how that was going—people were still looking for him, after all. Now that he thought about it, he had been gone for a while. Maybe he had been captured? Just as the thought passed his mind, the door of the shed flew open; it was Isaac.

The animator rolled his eyes. Of course he wasn't that lucky.

The feminine man was holding a bag of food and eating a sandwich. "Sorry I took so long. There was a cop investigating the store."

He closed the door and locked it from the inside with a wooden plank, then made his way to his makeshift bed where he continued eating his sandwich. The men looked at each other for so long they were practically holding a staring contest. Isaac was about to take another bite when Henry's stomach suddenly started to growl, making him blush.

The feminine man smirked. "Hungry, are we?"

The animator didn't say a word, he just glared at him.

"Don't worry, I brought you something as well," Isaac said as he grabbed a second sandwich out of his bag.

Henry was surprised—he had expected Isaac to let him starve. Yet, he was sceptical. "I don't need your stolen food."

"Well, I couldn't really go to the checkout to pay, for obvious reasons, but I did leave money for the food."

"Yeah, stolen money."

Isaac was getting frustrated. "Do you want the sandwich or not?"

The animator was about to refuse, but his stomach growled a second time, so reluctantly he accepted the offer.

The feminine man smiled softly. "Okay then, here's the deal; I'm going to untie you to let you eat, but no funny business. I know where to find you, and I won't be so gentle next time."

Henry couldn't believe his ears. Gentle? This is coming from the same guy who had done nothing but beat and kick him, even going as far as to attempt to drown him, and he called that gentle? The thought sent a shiver down Henry's spine. If this was gentle, he didn't want to find out what the man considered rough. The animator nodded, not wanting to anger his captor.

Isaac got up, walked to his captive, and untied him. Henry groaned as the rope came loose and fell from his body. The rope had been so tight and he had been tied up for so long, his joints were actually aching—he was too old for this. Isaac presented the sandwich to him. Just when he went to take the food, the feminine man pulled the sandwich out of reach. "Remember, NO FUNNY BUSINESS!"

Henry just nodded again, and Isaac gave him the food. The animator sat on the floor and began to eat while the feminine man walked backwards towards his bed, not breaking eye contact. He watched his captive eat for a while before he suddenly asked, "Do you know how many people the devil has killed over time?"

Henry almost choked on his last bite at the sudden strange question; he was at a loss for words.

"The devil killed billions upon billions of people over time. Innocent people, happy families, all lost, the world consumed by darkness and chaos."

The animator was silent.

"You aren't like this, mister Stein. I know you have a good heart, I can feel it. You don't want to serve the darkness, you don't want to be evil. So why, why do you let yourself be controlled by this evil being? I mean, surely you can agree that we don't want to see humanity suffer? We basically want the same thing."

Henry laughed at Isaac. "Wow, everything makes so much sense now. I can finally see the light. I'm so impressed, my middle fingers salute you." The animator showed both middle fingers.

"What?"

"I know what you're trying to do, your holiness, and let me tell you—if you expect me to listen to your bullshit and think you can brainwash me, you better make us a cup of coffee, because we're going to be here for a while."

Isaac was about to say something, but Henry silenced him by raising a hand while he continued; "Now you listen to me. I told you once, I told you twice—no, I told you a bazillion times, BENDY IS NOT EVIL! I made him, he's a cartoon for crying out loud. Yes I designed him to look like a demon, my mistake, I'm sorry, it seemed funny at the time. The guy you're looking for is called either Satan, Lucifer, or Beelzebub, you need to go search a bit lower to find him, probably going to need a shovel—oh, and don't forget the sunscreen."

Now Isaac was the one at a loss for words.

Henry went on, "Bendy is my son, he's my family, all three of the cartoons are my family, and I won't let you take them from me. Do you have any idea what you've done? Bendy already went through hell once, after the ordeal you put him through, and Bendy has gone through hell for a second time these past six months, always having nightmares. He barely ate or slept, living in fear of people like you! I made him a promise that I wouldn't let you hurt him, and I'm planning to keep that promise."

The feminine man sighed, slowly shaking his head in disapproval. "Oh mister Stein, you just made things so much worse for yourself."

The animator watched in horror as Isaac slowly rose from his bed. The man grabbed Henry's club from next to the bed and walked towards him; he crawled back across the floor, fear adorning his face, until his back reached the wall. He had nowhere to run, his captor was getting closer and closer as the man raised the bat above his head.

Isaac was lucky nobody was in the proximity of the meadow, because if they were close enough, they would have heard the faintest sound of pained screams coming from the shed.

***meanwhile with the cartoons***

After driving for thirty minutes, the smell was getting stronger and stronger. They were getting close, Boris was sure of it.

"How about it bro, are we there yet? I can't maintain my stretched body for very long anymore, it's really starting to hurt," Bendy groaned as he rubbed his legs and torso to ease the pain.

The cartoon wolf nodded, confirming they were almost there as he pointed the way. The meadow started to become visible at the end of the street. As the car reached the grassland, the little demon slowed down the vehicle. Boris stared at the shed all the way in the back of the meadow, growling.

"Are you sure it's here Boris? That shed looks abandoned," Alice said as she looked nervously out the front window, doubt in her voice.

Bendy turned to looked at the angel. "Come on Alice, you know Boris is never wrong with his tracking."

The cartoon angel gave the wolf a sympathetic smile. "Okay then, let's go have a look."

The devil drove the car into the grass, making their way towards the shed. The trio stepped out of the vehicle and walked straight to the the door of the building. Boris tried to open it, but when the door wouldn't budge, he faced the others and shrugged his shoulders, implying that the door was locked.

"Now what?" the angel asked.

"Well, we've come this far. I'm not about to let a crappy wooden door stop me," Bendy replied, rubbing his hands together with a mischievous grin on his face. The demon went back to the car and took a seat behind the wheel.

Boris raised a questioning non-existent eyebrow; Alice had an uneasy feeling crawling into her chest. "Bendy, what are you doing? Haven't you caused enough destruction for one day?"

The motor of Henry's car roared to life as the devil smiled, glee written over his face. "NOPE!"

He smashed his foot on the gas pedal, and the vehicle shot towards the door. Alice and Boris managed to jump out of the way in the nick of time, as the car shattered the door into pieces, creating a loud bang and sending a dust cloud flying in the process. The trio coughed as Bendy stumbled out of the car, shrinking to his original size. "Th-thank goodness, I never thought I would say this, but it's good to be short again," the little devil moaned as he moved his limbs one by one to ease the pain in his inky muscles.

All of a sudden the coughing stopped as two hands grabbed the demon by his shoulders and started shaking him violently. It was Alice. "BENDY! ARE YOU NUTS, COULD YOU STOP ACTING LIKE A WHACK JOB FOR ONE SECOND?!"

Bendy rolled his eyes. "Would you calm down, do you really think I would hurt my best pallies? I would've dodged if I saw you wouldn't be able to move away in time. You saw me go to the car, you had more than time enough to move aside. It's not my fault you decided to complain instead."

Boris made his way towards the fighting duo and stared both of them dead in the eyes, tapping his foot impatiently on the ground. They gulped; the wolf's stare was nerve wracking. Eventually Alice calmed down and faced Bendy with a frown. "Look, I know you meant well, but you really scared us back there. Warn us next time, okay? You promised me you would be more gentle."

The little demon glanced at her from the corner of his eyes. He closed them in contemplation and started to walk towards the angel. Once he reached her he wrapped his arms around her and whispered, "I'm sorry I scared you. I'm sorry I made you feel like I broke my promise. I'm really trying over here. I guess that man was right, I'm a danger to everyone."

"No you're not. You may be troublesome sometimes, but at least you're trying to do better. I mean, Rome wasn't built in one day either, and it's not like you're destroying everything in sight. Just think before you act, that's all we ask."

The demon smiled at his big sister. "Deal!"

The three toons stared at the shed as the dust cloud started to fade; their eyes went wide at the scene in front of them. Tears ran down Alice's face, Boris' ears drooped and he started making whining sounds, and Bendy just stood there in shock, his mouth agape.

Right in front of them was a bathtub, an old tub filled with what appeared to be scarlet water. There was a man bathing in the red fluid, motionless; it was none other than their father dearest, their creator, Henry. The animator's body was covered with bruises and open wounds, his blood what gave the water its colour... and he wasn't moving at all.

The trio ran towards their father. Alice reached out to touch Henry, but Bendy stopped her. The angel looked at the little devil, doubt written on her face. Bendy clarified while pointing at the tub. "I'm sorry, you can't touch him. Dad is inside water, your hands will dissolve if try to take him out of it."

More tears ran down the angel's face, while the three toons stared at the unconscious animator, unsure of what to do.

Out of nowhere, they were startled by a familiar voice. "I tried, I really tried. I wanted to make him see the light, but my efforts were in vain. He just wouldn't listen to me. He's a lost cause. It seems darkness has already consumed his soul."

The toons spun in the direction the voice was coming from; it was Isaac. The man's clothing was covered with blood splatters, probably Henry's. He was leaning with his back against the wall. He stared at the blood covered floor, his hair hanging in his face. It was like a scene from a horror movie.

It was silent. Nobody moved, nobody dared to make a sound. Eventually, Bendy was the one who set things into motion. He slowly shook his head in disbelief as he asked with a shaky, barely audible voice, "How could you? What have you done?"

Isaac slowly lifted his head and growled. "WHAT HAVE I DONE?! THIS IS YOUR FAULT! YOU'RE THE ONE WHO CONTROLLED HIM! NO MATTER WHAT I TOLD HIM, HE INSISTED ON PROTECTING YOU! YOU FORCED ME TO PUNISH HIM!"

The little demon remembered the promise Henry had made that day. Guilt started to overwhelm him, but there was something else—a dark emotion, an emotion he didn't like. Rage. His body trembled as his hands curled into fists. Tears ran down his face, but he bore an expression of anger.

Isaac screamed, dashing at the three toons in an attempt to attack them. Bendy was able to dodge, creating an inky puddle on the wooden floor and letting himself disappear into it, but Alice and Boris weren't as lucky, as the crazed man tackled them to the floor. Boris dropped the dagger as he fell.

Just as fast as the little devil had disappeared, he reappeared out of the same ink puddle. "ALICE! BORIS!" Bendy snarled at Isaac, his teeth bared, and shot toward the feminine man. When the demon reached his target, his tail wrapped around Isaac and pulled him away from his siblings, throwing the man against the wall.

Isaac fell to the floor, landing panting on his hands and knees. His eyes landed on the dagger Boris had dropped. The human glanced at the demon, whose back was to him, while the other two were dazed. He used the opportunity to sneak towards the dagger.

"Alice, Boris, wake up. We need to get out of here." The little demon gently shook the angel and the wolf. The two toons' eyes were swirling, but they soon recovered. Bendy felt a wave of relief, until he heard Isaac laugh. The three toons' eyes went wide, and they gasped at the sight of the man. Isaac was standing next to the old bathtub Henry was lying in. On top of that, he was holding the sacrificial knife Boris had dropped.

Isaac aimed the knife at the demon. "Thanks to you, it seems another life will be lost to darkness." The angel, wolf, and devil watched in horror as Isaac slowly lowered the dagger over Henry's chest.

"PLEASE DON'T! DAD, WAKE UP!" Alice screamed at the top of her lungs in a desperate attempt to wake their father, tears streaming down her face.

What happened next played out in the blink of an eye. Just as Isaac was about to plunge the knife into the animator's chest, Bendy roared in rage, and a black tentacle of ink appeared out of the bloodstained wood floor. The tentacle threw the crazed human to the floor. Thereafter, it wrapped around Isaac's ankle and started to thrash, smashing the man into the floor repeatedly like a ragdoll.

The tentacle was about to lift the man up again, then Isaac cut the black substance with one slash, freeing himself. He flew into the ceiling and fell to the floor.

In the meantime, Bendy had managed to run to the tub. The feminine man scrambled to his feet, catching his breath; he was covered with bruises and cuts just like the animator. The instant he noticed the demon standing at the tub he ran towards him.

With no time to think, Bendy slammed his left hand in the water and dragged Henry out of the tub just as Isaac was about to attack. In the nick of time, the little devil was able to dodge, jerking his dad behind him. Isaac slipped on a puddle of ink while the duo managed to dodge, and he fell, slamming his head against the rim of the tub. The feminine man fell to the floor unconscious, blood trickling from the wound.

Bendy took a few steps back. Henry lay on the floor, completely soaked and coloured with a pinkish red shine from the bloody water.

Alice and Boris sprinted over to check on their father; they called to him in an attempt to wake him when they suddenly heard laboured breathing. At first they thought it was Isaac, but when they glanced at the downed man, they realised it wasn't him.

When they turned their heads to face the demon, the angel screamed, holding her hands in front of her mouth while Boris' ears drooped. The one with the laboured breathing was none other than Bendy himself. The little devil's legs trembled and he was holding his left arm, which was melting before their eyes. The demon started to roar in pain, and his legs finally gave out. He fell to his knees, still clutching his arm, which became shorter and shorter as ink splattered to the ground.

Panicked, the angel and wolf looked around to find something to help their brother. Boris laid eyes upon the sheet that was still hanging on the washing line. He wasted no time in dashing toward it and ripping a strip from the fabric. As fast as his legs could carry him, he ran toward his younger brother and wrapped the strip of cloth around his arm like a bandage. Alice rubbed Bendy's back in an attempt to comfort him.

Boris made a knot in the strip, making Bendy grind his teeth and grunt in pain. Boris and Alice looked at each other with worry. "I-I'm fine…" the demon wheezed. "J-Just... make sure the old man is t-too."

The wolf took what was left of the sheet and wrapped it around Henry, careful not to touch him directly. He carried their dad bridal style towards the car and was soon followed by Alice and Bendy. The angel walked bent over to make herself smaller, and she had Bendy's right arm around her shoulders for support. They left Isaac alone in the shed.

Alice sat in the backseat next to Henry as Bendy sat in the passenger seat in front and Boris behind the wheel. The wolf and angel stared at the little demon, since he was needed to make the car key replica out of ink if they wanted to start the vehicle.

The little devil took a few deep breaths as an ink blob appeared in his right hand. It slowly took the shape of a key, but soon reverted back as Bendy groaned and gasped for air. "S-Sorry." He hissed as he gave it a second shot. Finally he succeeded and gave the key to his brother.

Boris started the car and they practically flew to the hospital.

***Meanwhile at the hospital***

"...and then she said, 'How else am I gonna draw blood?'" Dr. Johnson was telling a funny story to his colleague at the reception desk. Both doctors were laughing very hard. Anthony was even crying with his own story as he slapped his knee, holding his stomach with the other hand.

At that exact same time, Rudy and Tina came walking into the hospital lobby. They soon found Anthony, since all they had to do was follow the sound of laughter. They walked up to the doctor, Rudy staring at him in disapproval. "Don't you have any work to do? I thought you worked here as a doctor, not the hospital clown."

Dr. Johnson's laughter slowly died down. He wiped a tear away with his finger. "Oh, hi Rudy, nice to see you too. Even doctors are allowed to have a break once in a while, you know? We may be doctors, saving lives and all, but we're humans too."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, very interesting, but not why we're here."

Anthony raised an eyebrow. "Then why are you here?"

Rudy sighed and scratched his head. "I'm finally done dealing with the robbery investigation, only for it to be a dead end. In any case, right after we went home after you drained Bendy's ink, we found that Henry has been kidnapped by the man who stabbed the little guy—"

"Wait, HENRY WAS KIDNAPPED?!" The doctor shouted, shock on his face.

"Shhh, jeez, keep it down, would ya? Does the entire village need to know?"

"Right, sorry."

"Anyway, my chief came to their house since I accidentally triggered the alarm and we couldn't turn it off. The chief was going to start an investigation to search for Henry and the toons wanted to help, but the boss is really stubborn and wouldn't let them. They got upset and ran away. I wanted to go after them, but I had to investigate the burglary. Now that I'm finished, I'm looking for the toons. Have you seen them by any chance?"

The doctor shook his head. "I'm afraid I haven't seen them. Then again, I've been in the laboratory all this time. It took me a while, but I managed—"

Anthony was interrupted when the hospital entrance door flew wide open, revealing all three toons with an unconscious Henry.

The three humans stared at them. The toons stared back. The lobby was filled with an awkward silence.

The doctor cleared his throat and pointed at the toons. "Found them."

Rudy glared at Anthony, then he ran towards the cartoons. Meanwhile the doctor gestured at some colleagues that they needed some help. "WE NEED A STRETCHER OVER HERE, ASAP!"

The staff shot into action, following Anthony's instructions. The doc himself ran toward the cartoons as well and squatted in front of Henry as he pulled a light from the breast pocket off his doctor's coat. He checked his friend's eyes while Alice rambled about what had happened. That's when the doctor laid eyes on Bendy. "Oh my God, what happened to you?!"

Rudy and Tina, who hadn't noticed Bendy before, were shocked as they saw the little stub where Bendy's arm used to be. The three humans stared at Bendy with worry as Anthony's coworkers wheeled Henry to an examination room to start treatment.

Dr. Johnson signalled to a nurse that he needed a wheelchair and as the nurse went to go get it, Anthony got close to the little devil. He wanted to touch the little stub to take a closer look at it, but Bendy pulled it away.

Surprised, the doctor looked at the demon. Bendy just slowly shook his head. Ink dripped from his forehead like sweat. "I-I'm fine. Help our d-dad first."

Anthony gave the little devil a soft smile. The nurse came running with the chair. "It's okay Bendy, this is a hospital, there's enough medical staff to treat you both at the same time. My colleague is already helping your dad."

Bendy didn't seem too convinced, but he gave Dr. Johnson the benefit of the doubt, as he nodded slightly.

"Good, I'm going to help you now, okay? Just take a seat in the wheelchair."

Bendy looked at the nurse who was holding the wheelchair and sighed. She gave him a sympathetic smile, and he reluctantly did what was asked of him. The nurse started to push the wheelchair towards the same examination room where their dad was being treated.

Upon entering the room, the other doctor noticed Bendy staring at them and ordered someone from his team to close the curtains.

The demon just saw a glimpse of Henry's face before the curtain hid his dad from him. The little devil ended up on a examination table and whimpered in pain as Dr. Johnson removed the strip of cloth, wincing at the sight of Bendy's left arm—or at least, what was left of it.


	5. waterproof body

"Okay, I'm going to need disinfectant, sterile compresses, a new bandage, and patches," Doctor Johnson instructed the assisting nurse. He attached a heart monitor on Bendy's chest while the nurse returned with the requested items, then she placed an oxygen mask on the little devil's face. Anthony stared into the toon's eyes. "Bendy? I'm going to clean your left arm now, okay?"

The little demon stared at his doctor from the corner of his eyes, his lower lip trembling. Doctor Johnson gave him a sympathetic smile, in an attempt to reassure him that everything was going to be okay. Yet Anthony noticed Bendy's tail weakly swiping around, as if it was ready to defend its owner.

The doctor sighed. "Look Bendy, I know it's gonna hurt, but if we don't do it, your arm may become infected and then you'll probably end up losing what's left of it. Please, retract your tail. We're trying to help you."

The little devil stared out in front of him, and the tail shrank until it was gone. Anthony nodded in appreciation, then he was silent. He sat in thought until he finally asked, "So, last time you were here, you told me you can manipulate ink, including your body. Shouldn't you be able to make your arm grow back again?"

Bendy gave a weak chuckle, which resulted in him coughing and gasping for air. "Nah, I w-wish it was as s-simple as that, but the thing is... I c-can only manipulate my b-body, not add to it. O-once I lose a p-part of myself, it's gone, for good. O-or at least, till someone... draws it back."

The nurse and Anthony looked at the closed curtain, beyond which Henry was being treated. Suddenly Bendy grunted as a pain shot went through the stub, making the nurse and doctor focus on their patient again. "Mary? Prepare a shot of morphine, would ya?"

The nurse nodded and did as she was told, much to Bendy's dismay when he saw the syringe.

"No no no, it's okay pally. It's just gonna take the pain away, it's only gonna take a sec. Just look at me okay?"

The demon did as instructed, and he felt the needle penetrate his solidified inky skin. He flinched, but was positively surprised as the needle appeared to be out of his arm again. The doctor wasn't lying, it only took a second.

"Okay, let's start the disinfecting. On the count of three, okay?" Anthony informed them as he started the countdown. Mary grabbed the little demon's hand to comfort him; Bendy appreciated it.

The doctor poured the disinfectant on a sterile compress as he was counting. When he reached three, he placed the compress on the stub and dabbed until the excess ink was gone and only the solid ink texture remained.

The disinfectant stung. The stinging turned into a burning feeling—it hurt like hell, and soon the pain became so intense that the little devil started to scream, his grip on the nurse's hand intensified. Finally Anthony was finished, but Bendy was gone. The demon's eyes closed and his breathing was labored, and he slowly fell in a state of unconsciousness.

oOo

It was dark. Bendy felt numb, as if he was floating in a void, unable to move. That's when he heard something—different sounds, like voices, but faint and muffled. Distant. After a while, he could heard the voices more clearly. The little devil slowly squinted his eyes open, but slammed them shut again as they were overwhelmed by a bright light.

"Bendy, are you awake? Come on pally, open your eyes."

The little demon recognised the voice as Rudy's. He cracked his eyes open again and forced himself to keep them open so they would be able to adjust to the light. He saw a white ceiling. As he turned his head, he noticed he was in a hospital room. Everyone was there; Rudy, Tina, Anthony, Alice, Boris, and as he looked at the bed to his right, even his dad.

To his relief, it seemed the animator was awake. Henry was staring back at him, worry written all over his face.

Doctor Johnson made his way towards Bendy's bed, and just like how he had done with Henry before, he took a light out of his doctor's coat and aimed it in the demon's eyes. The toon groaned, and Anthony pulled the light away. "Sorry about that—looking good, though."

Bendy didn't care, all he did was stare at their father. The doctor noticed as he followed the demon's gaze. "It's okay, your dad is all right. The damage wasn't as bad as it looked. He needed a few stitches, has some bruised ribs, a few bruises, and a mild concussion, but other than that he's fine. You're in worse shape at the moment."

Bendy noticed Henry staring at the stub where his left arm once was. Tears were forming in the animator's eyes. "I-it's all right dad, I-I'm fine, I promise," the little devil managed to wheeze in an attempt to reassure his father.

Henry gave him a soft smile in response. The last thing he wanted was to make Bendy feel bad. The animator glanced at Anthony and asked, "Did you manage to replicate the ink?"

"Ah yes, the ink. I was just talking to Rudy about that before the toons brought you in. It took a while, but after carefully examining the ink, I managed to recreate it. It wasn't easy to make, though. It all starts with the basic ingredient, ink, then it's a matter of adding the right chemicals—they need to be exactly accurate to the milliliter, otherwise the ink is going to emit a poisonous gas. It's a good thing I took precautions on my first attempt."

The group stared at Anthony, filled with disbelief by the news of how dangerous it was to make the special ink.

"My goodness, and to think the studio has a machine that produces it non-stop," Henry mumbled to himself, making sure Anthony, Rudy, and Tina wouldn't hear him.

Dr. Johnson continued, "Having said all that, after attempt number six, I finally managed to recreate it. Now it's only a matter of using it."

The animator glanced at Anthony. "Testing it, you mean."

The doctor noticed and sighed. "Look Henry, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. Bendy, Alice, and Boris are creatures made completely out of ink and are, as far as we know, the only three creatures made out of ink. There's nothing or no one we can test it on. Do you really think I would put Bendy's life on the line if I wasn't sure it would work?"

The worried father closed his eyes in contemplation. His thoughts were interrupted a moment later by Bendy.

The little devil shot him his typical grin, even though it was a weak one. "D-don't worry dad, it's all right. I-I will test it."

Alice and Boris were attentively following the conversation between their father and brother.

Henry was about to protest, but the demon was having none of it. He had already made up his mind.

"C-come on old man, if this is a way to n-never need to go to that hellish studio again, I'll gladly do it."

The animator was surprised by the devil's sincere words. He didn't like the idea of putting Bendy in danger, but the demon had a point. Going to Joey Drew Studios wasn't an option either. So, much to Henry's reluctance, he agreed that Bendy would test Anthony's special ink.

Dr. Johnson nodded in appreciation. "Thank you for the trust, I won't let you down my friend."

Henry didn't reply; he just lay in his bed and stared at the ceiling above him as his thoughts and emotions warred in his head.

"Um, I guess I'll get things ready for the procedure then. You're the one who will need to draw Bendy's arm again, Henry—I can't do it. I'm a doctor, not an artist. Besides, you've probably drawn him like a bazillion times by now."

Henry chuckled. "Easier said than done, doc. When I draw it's on paper, not in thin air. Not only that, but normally we work out a sketch before we do the inking." The animator glanced at Bendy, who had a hint of worry on his face at Henry's reaction. Henry wasn't trying to make his little devil feel uncomfortable, he was only stating the facts.

"True, I never said it was going to be easy. Look, if you want, I can provide you with something to erase the ink if you made a mistake"—he glances at the demon—"but it will probably hurt Bendy, if I'm being honest."

The animator was at a loss for words; they were actually placing all this pressure on him.

"Don't worry dad, you'll do great," the little devil encouraged.

Henry couldn't do more than just nod with a faint smile.

"Great, it's settled then. I'm going to go make the preparations and when I'm done I'll come back to check up on you two. Then, if you're feeling up for it, we're going to get Bendy's arm back."

And with that, Doctor Johnson left the room.

Henry stared at Rudy, who gave a compassionate smile in return. "You know, for being a doctor, he just did a remarkable job of making me feel worse," Henry joked at his best friend.

Rudy chuckled. "Don't worry about it Henry, Anthony is really trying his best. I've known him for years, and though he may be a bit silly at times—okay, maybe a lot silly, but I dare say he's one of the best doctors that I know. If he says that he was able to recreate the ink, I believe him. Just like I believe that you will be able to draw Bendy's arm back again."

The animator stared at his children from the corner of his eye; they were smiling at him, all three of them. Henry chuckled as their smiles made his worries fade away.

Eventually, Rudy took Tina, Alice, and Boris to the cafeteria of the hospital to have drinks so Bendy and Henry could have a little rest. They would probably need it if they wanted to perform the treatment on the little devil.

The cafeteria was relatively quiet. Rudy sipped his coffee as he watched Alice and Boris try to make Tina laugh. He was impressed—the cop was happy that the toons were so strong that they could still laugh. Given the situation, he had to admire that.

When their drinks were finished, they decided to return Bendy and Henry's room.

Upon reaching the hallway they needed to be in, they saw Anthony and two nurses at the end of it. Each nurse was wheeling an empty wheelchair as they were heading towards their direction. Both groups halted in front of the creator and cartoon devil's room and went inside together.

Henry looked up from his bed as he saw the group enter the room. Bendy, on the other hand, had his eyes closed. His chest was gently rising and falling as he slept.

"Okay, everything is ready. Are you guys up for it?" Doctor Johnson asked Henry, gesturing to one of the empty wheelchairs.

The animator nodded as he sat up on the bed while one of the nurses went to his side to assist him. The second nurse approached the sleeping demon and gently shook his right shoulder in an attempt to wake him.

Bendy groaned as he slowly opened his eyes. When he saw the nurse and the wheelchair, he knew what was going on. Not needing an explanation, the little devil sat up with assistance from the nurse, and she helped him get into the wheelchair.

While Henry and Bendy were being seated, Rudy looked at Anthony and asked, "Can we come as well?"

"Well, normally visitors aren't allowed while treatments are carried out. But then again, this isn't a normal case. I don't mind if they don't mind."

Henry and Bendy glanced at each other and gave a nod to the doctor, making clear that they didn't mind the company.

"Good, that's settled then. I mean, I'm not gonna tell my boss and neither are they. Right girls?" Anthony stated as he faced the two nurses. The duo nodded in agreement. The doctor turned back to his friends with a gentle smile. "There, you see? Nobody will know. I guess we're ready to go, then."

Doctor Johnson led the group out of the room and guided the way to the hall where Bendy would get his arm back—or at least, that's what he hoped for. Upon entering the hall, they saw what looked like an operation table covered by a white sheet, with a large circular light hanging above it. On the left of the table there was machinery to measure the vitals, and on the right was a little cart.

Normally that cart would be supplied with surgical tools, but in this case there were drawing supplies instead, including what appeared to be a test tube with the experimental ink, technical pens, nylon brushes, and—just like Anthony had promised—a vial of acetone.

"Sheesh, is all of this really necessary?" The little devil raised an eyebrow at Dr. Johnson.

"I'm afraid so, Bendy. We need to be prepared in case something goes wrong. Besides, this is the first time in history a treatment like this has happened. I need to monitor everything to learn from it." Anthony halted the rest of the group and pointed to the side of the room. "Would you guys be so kind as to wait over there? It's probably better if Henry has some space to work."

Rudy, Tina, Alice, and Boris did as they were told. Meanwhile, the nurse who was wheeling Bendy's chair pushed the demon towards the table and helped her patient to get on it. Once she was sure the little devil was lying comfortable, she placed the wheelchair away and attached some electrodes to Bendy's chest. Finally she got a fresh white sheet and draped it over the demon's lower body to keep him warm. The upper body, however, needed to stay free since Henry needed to work there with the ink.

Once Bendy was installed, the second nurse wheeled Henry towards the table and helped him to stand up. Though Henry was still a little weak, he had recovered enough to be able to stand.

"Okay Henry, the nurse will stay by your side just in case. Normally I would suggest drawing his arm from the wheelchair, but as you might have noticed, the table is a bit too high for that. We're going to leave your wheelchair here, and if you start to feel nauseous, I want you to stop what you're doing and sit in the chair to rest a little, is that clear? Don't forget that you're a patient yourself, I don't want you to overdo it."

Henry nodded. "I'm fine."

"Okay then, I guess we're ready to start." Anthony glanced at Bendy. "At least, if you're ready."

"Ready as I'll ever be, doc."

The doctor just smiled at him and turned on the monitors. Once the familiar beeping of the machine could be heard, Anthony could tell instantly that Bendy was scared. His heart rate was a little faster than usual. He glanced at the demon and noticed he was smiling at his father. That's when he knew that Bendy was keeping himself strong for Henry's sake. He would find it cute if he wasn't about to have a nervous breakdown about this whole situation. After all, he made the new ink, and the last thing he wants is for this whole thing to go wrong. He would never forgive himself if something were to happen to the little guy.

Everyone held their breath as Henry dipped the pen in Dr. Johnson's ink and was about to start drawing. Before Henry did so, he looked at his son. His little devil darling was smiling at him, but he knew better. He could see it in his piecut eyes; the demon was scared, and he had to admit, so was he. But just like how his son was smiling at him, he smiled back.

The animator began the treatment. First thing he did was looking at Bendy's right side; he wanted to start with Bendy's hand, but he had to make sure it would be at the same height as his other arm. Once he got the right height, he started to imagine the sketch lines in his head, because this time he wasn't able to draw them. Finally, he took a deep breath, placed the tip of the pen on the air and started drawing.

Everyone stared in awe as the line of ink Henry just had drawn stayed in its place; the ink was actually floating in the air. From that line on, Henry continued to draw. After fifteen minutes, the silhouette of the hand was completed. Once every line was connected, the hand started to fill itself with ink, turning itself into a three dimensional white cartoon gloved hand. The animator finished it off by taking one of the nylon brushes, which he dipped in the black ink, and drew the two iconic black dots on the back of the glove.

And there it was, Bendy's hand. Everyone looked at Bendy, who didn't give much of a reaction. How could he? The hand wasn't even connected to his body yet.

Dr. Johnson checked the monitors; everything stayed the same. Heart rate was a little on the fast side, but not in bad condition. Ink pressure was all right, everything looked good. Next he glanced at Henry. The man staggered a little on his legs. "Henry, how are you holding up?"

"I-I'm getting a little dizzy."

"Okay mister, break time. Go sit in the chair."

"N-no please, I'm not THAT dizzy. I only need to do the arm, that's the easiest part yet, that's what I love about drawing cartoons, their arms are just noodles. Two lines and he should be fixed."

Anthony sighed and looked at both animator and toon with a sympathetic smile. "Okay then, this is it… Once you connect the hand with the stub of his arm, my ink will be connected with the ink of the studio. It may be the easiest part, but it's also the most important and intense one. So, if you don't mind, I'm gonna have a sip of water while you draw. Once you're finished, I want you to sit in the wheelchair behind you and then we'll observe the reaction of our friend over here."

Henry switched the brush for the pen and dipped it in the ink again while Anthony took a glass of water. The animator held the tip of the pen to the wrist of the glove. Everyone was still holding their breath. The pen swiped through the air, creating the first line of the arm, and then again as he drew the second line. Just like what had happened with the hand, the arm filled itself with black ink, turning it three dimensional and bringing it to reality.

As the arm was forming, Henry sat in his wheelchair. His nerves took the wheel and left him feeling nauseous. Once he was seated, he couldn't take his eyes from his son.

Everyone was staring at Bendy, with the exception of Anthony, who was watching the monitors. "So far so good." Bendy's vitals stayed stable even though his heart rate went a tad up.

A wave of relief filled the room as Bendy didn't seem to show any signs of pain or discomfort. Henry couldn't believe it, he'd done it. Anthony actually did it. The doctor had recreated the ink.

A few minutes passed while they waited for Bendy's arm to dry before Anthony walked to the newly drawn arm with the glass of water still in his hand. It made the group a bit nervous.

"Um, Anthony? Buddy? I don't think it's a good idea to keep your glass so close to Bendy's ar—" Rudy couldn't finish his sentence, as everyone in the room watched in horror as the doctor deliberately poured his glass over the demon's new arm.

Shocked, Henry yelled, "ARE YOU CRAZY?! HE JUST GOT HIS ARM BACK AND YOU DESTROYED IT!"

Anthony turned to face Henry with a smirk. "Did I now? Take a closer look, would ya?"

The animator quickly looked at Bendy, worry written all over his face, but to his surprise, the demon seemed completely fine. Bendy wasn't in pain, nor was the new arm gone. It was still there, completely intact.

"Wh...what? H-how?"

"Remember how you were worried about the fact that the toons would dissolve in water? While I was working on recreating the ink, I may have killed two birds with one stone by using East-Indian ink. In all honesty Henry, I don't understand why that studio of yours is using water based ink to begin with. I mean, not that I'm an expert on the matter, but I thought animation studios tended to work with waterproof ink."

Alice, Bendy, and Boris stared at their father. They wanted to know the same thing.

"I-it was Joey…We were fighting about this once. I wanted to use professional ink since that would get the best results, but Joey said it was too expensive. I didn't agree with him. After all, it wasn't like the studio was doing badly for itself. Business was good and we had enough money to buy the professional ink, but for some reason Joey acted like a cheapskate. Saving money on the littlest things, just like a kid who was trying to save money to buy a toy.

"I didn't really ask about it, I just focused on my drawings like I always did. I was also in the middle of the process of designing the characters, so I had other things on my mind. After I had left the studio, I heard he pulled a one-eighty on my ass and started using money as if it was toilet paper." Henry stared off into nothing as he recalled his time of working at the studio.

After he finished the explanation, he stared at Anthony from the corner of his eye. "You should have told us that you had used waterproof ink."

"Maybe so, but I already had a difficult time convincing you to use my product when you thought it was an exact copy of the studio's ink, let alone if I told you that I used a different type of ink to recreate it."

Henry sighed. "Can't argue with that, I suppose." The animator faced the doctor with a soft smile.

Anthony nervously cleared his throat and focused on Bendy instead. "So, Bendy, how are you feeling?"

"I'm fine."

"Okay then, let's see you move your arm."

It was silent for a moment as all attention was aimed at the little devil. A few seconds went by, but nothing happened. Nobody wanted to make a sound as they noticed Bendy was trying to concentrate. He was holding his breath and tensing up his body in an attempt to make the new arm move, but it didn't. Eventually his body relaxed while he gasped for air. "I-I can't, I can't move my arm."

Everyone stared at each other as their hearts became filled with worry. Henry and Anthony locked eyes with one another, while the doctor went to stand next to Bendy's new arm. He pressed his index finger on the lower part of it. "Can you feel this?"

"Barely, I can feel some weak tingling coming from that spot."

"That's good, that means it's not completely paralysed. Can you try moving your fingers for me?"

Again there was silence as everyone focused on the little devil's left hand. The fingers started to twitch ever so slightly, but didn't actually move.

Bendy faced the doctor, sadness radiating off his face while Anthony instructed, "Okay, it's not much, but it's a start. I'm going to give you my hand and I want you to squeeze it as hard as you can. Okay?"

The demon nodded, and the doctor placed his hand in Bendy's left. Bendy tried really hard, but again nothing happened. Anthony could feel a finger twitch, but that was about it. The doctor winced and slowly shook his head. Something was wrong.

"What's happening to him?" Henry asked with a worried tone. The nausea started to take its toll on him.

"I don't know. Theoretically it should have worked. I mean, his arm is here, it's attached to his body and all. He can even feel it, but really weakly. My only guess is that the studio's ink and my ink don't really mix."

"Jeez, you think? Thanks for the info, captain obvious."

"Calm down, calm down. There's a way to fix this."

The animator was glaring at the doctor at this point. "How?"

"Bendy's left arm is only a small part of his body. If we use the ink on his entire body, it should strengthen the effects."

"What, and make him completely paralysed?"

It was silent for a moment before the little devil himself interrupted it. "Do it."

Everyone looked at Bendy in disbelief, but no one was more shocked than the animator himself. "BENDY, NO! It's too dangerous, do you have any idea what it's like to be completely paralysed? The effect could even be worse, what if it affects your organs? BENDY YOU COULD DIE FOR ALL WE KNOW!"

The demon shook his head. "You don't know that. It could be perfectly fine for all we know. I understand you're worried about me, but since when did you become such a pessimist? Doctor Johnson is our friend, isn't he? If he's our friend, we should trust him. I know I do, and so does everyone else. Besides that, it's my body and I can do what I want with it, even if it leads to my death. Having said that, I know there are risks…"

Bendy glanced at Alice and Boris. "...But if it's a way to make sure we don't need to go to that hellhole ever again, I'm more than happy to play guinea pig. I'll do anything to keep my family safe, I owe you all that much. Besides…" Bendy looked his father in the eyes, grinning. "I'm not planning on dying today."

"I-if that's what you really want, I will respect that. You're right, I may have only seen the bad side of things lately, but I only wanted to keep you three safe. I love you, all three of you. You're my children and I don't want to lose any of you."

Bendy smiled softly. He gestured with his right hand for his father to come over. Anthony helped Henry stand, using himself as support. The animator stood right next to his son and bent over until he was hovering above the demon's head. Bendy placed his right hand on Henry's cheek, and tears formed in his eyes as he whispered, "You won't."

Henry placed a hand on the one of the little devil's and then kissed Bendy's forehead. "I'll be here, no matter what happens."

The doctor helped his friend back to the wheelchair, then looked at the little devil.

Bendy was curious; "So doc, how are we going to do this?"

"It's easy really, but you're not gonna like it."

"Let me guess; does it involve needles?"

"It's that obvious, huh? We're not talking about a syringe this time. My ink needs to spread through your entire body. We're talking about a lot of ink here. You're going to need an IV, and it's going to take a while, I'm afraid."

The little devil whimpered as his lower lip trembled again. "W-well… Better strap me down this time. Don't want me to go berserk again."

Henry was surprised by Bendy's comment. "Wait, Bendy went berserk? What happened? Why does he need straps?"

The doctor looked at the animator. "Oh that's right, you weren't here last time, so you don't know this yet."

"Don't know what yet?" Henry wasn't in the mood to play the guessing game.

Anthony sighed as he grabbed what appeared to be three safety straps. "When we were taking ink from Bendy this morning, there was a minor complication. We discovered he's scared of needles. I wouldn't go as far as saying he went berserk, but let's just say it wasn't easy to fill the two bags he donated. We're prepared now, though I had hoped we wouldn't need it."

"It's all right doc," Bendy reassured. "I'll be all right."

The doctor nodded and gave the straps to the nurse. She walked over to the little demon and gently strapped Bendy to the table while the other nurse got the IV ready. One of the straps was placed around Bendy's chest and upper arms, one around his middle and wrists, and the final one around the ankles. She made sure the straps were tight enough to hold the patient in place but made sure they weren't too tight; she didn't want to make the cartoon uncomfortable.

The second nurse wheeled over a long pole with an IV full of ink hanging from it. She took a sterile needle and connected it to the IV, and then she gently pushed the needle into Bendy's left forearm. The demon was glad he had barely any feeling in that arm.

The group watched as the black ink slowly dripped out of the bag and gently made its way through the hose into the intravenous catheter. The poor demon flinched and closed his eyes as the fluid began entering his body.

Anthony watched Bendy like a hawk, making sure he was ready. From the moment the little guy showed the tiniest sign of discomfort, he would help him. Looking at the monitors, he noticed the devil's heart rate rising; with that, his ink pressure went up as well and his breathing sped up. Just like when he had donated ink, Bendy started to become scared.

Technically speaking, it wasn't that bad that the devil's heart rate and ink pressure went up. That way the ink would spread faster through his body, but he didn't like the fact that the little demon was breathing so fast—if he kept that up, he would lose consciousness again. "Shh, it's okay pally, calm down. It's gonna be all right."

Bendy partially opened his eyes and nodded.

"How are you feeling?"

"I-I'm c-cold."

The doctor placed a hand on the little devil's forehead. "Uh-oh... He's burning up."

On cue, one of the nurses grabbed a cloth and dipped it in cold water. She made her way towards the toon demon and placed it on his forehead in an attempt to cool him down. The other nurse went and grabbed a geratherm thermometer. They needed to study the effects of the ink mix-up on the toon. She placed the device in Bendy's mouth. After a while Anthony took the thermometer out and checked the results.

"Huh, 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. He has a mild fever. It's nothing too bad, it could be a side effect from the inks blending, but I'm going to give him some extra oxygen just in case. Last time he was breathing like this, it didn't end well."

The doctor installed the oxygen tanks and placed the mask over Bendy's mouth. It wouldn't take the devil's fear or fever away, but he hoped at least that his breathing would become a little more stable. "Normally I would do this in his room, when he's in a bed instead of on a table, but since this is the first time a treatment like this has been performed, we unfortunately need to keep him here with the apparatuses to keep an eye on him. Discovering potential side effects, studying them, and making sure he gets through all of this. I have to admit, his trypanophobia isn't helping, but the only side effect so far is a mild fever. Hopefully it's the only side effect."

Anthony looked at Henry. "An IV can take up to forty-five minutes. If you want, we can bring you to your room to rest a little."

"No thanks, I can rest in my chair. I promised I would stay by his side."

"Okay, that's understandable." Anthony glanced at the little devil, who was trembling a little against the straps.

Bendy wanted nothing more than to scream and pull the IV out of his arm. Even though he was scared and he felt uneasy, he tried his best not to show it to the others; little did he know that he was doing a terrible job.

The doctor came up with a suggestion. "Bendy, I know this may be hard for you right now, but I'm gonna suggest it anyway; try to sleep a little. That way you won't know about the IV, and it may help get your fever down. By the time you wake up, the needle may be out already."

The demon kept his eyes closed and weakly shook his head. "I-I don't think I c-can, d-doc."

"I could give you something to help you sleep, but I don't want to add chemical medicine to the chemical battle that's already happening in your body—God knows what that would do to you. I'm not risking it. I'm afraid you'll have to go through it."

The cartoon demon moaned. Henry grabbed the wheels of his wheelchair and rolled himself towards the table. He raised his hand and started rubbing his son's horns while he sang, just like before:

Ooh, ooh, ooh

Ooh, ooh

Somewhere over the rainbow

Way up high

And the dreams that you dream of

Once in a lullaby

Somewhere over the rainbow

Bluebirds fly

And the dreams that you dream of

Dreams really do come true

Someday, I wish upon a star

Wake up where the clouds are far behind me

Where trouble melts like lemon drops

High above the chimney top

That's where you'll find me...

Three minutes. That's how long it took for Henry to put Bendy to sleep. Everyone in the room stared at the animator; some of them had their mouths hanging open, while the others were just plain impressed.

"Jeez, where were you when the little guy donated ink? We sure as hell could have used you here," Anthony joked, astonishment decorating his face.

The animator chuckled. "I only learned this trick recently myself. I watched The Wizard of Oz a while back. Two nights ago Bendy was having a nightmare and couldn't sleep, so I started rubbing his horns—he enjoys that—and suddenly I remembered that song from the movie and began to sing it for him. It really seems to calm him down for some reason."

"Good to know. Promise me you will be there when he needs an injection next time."

Henry nodded and glanced at the little devil.

It was silent in the room. Nobody dared to make a sound, not wanting to wake up Bendy. He was finally breathing normally again. Everyone stared at the little demon in awe; he looked so cute when he slept.

Before they knew it, the IV was empty. It was a great pleasure for Anthony to remove the needle from Bendy's arm, since he was still asleep.

Twenty minutes later the little devil groaned and slowly opened his eyes. Imagine his surprise when he found out that the needle was removed from his left arm; he couldn't be more happy.

Soon Anthony walked over to the table and placed his hand on Bendy's forehead. "Hmm, still a little warm, but I think his fever went down. Okay Bendy, the big moment is here…Would you mind moving your left arm for me?"

One could feel the tenseness in the air; it was so silent you could hear a needle fall. The cartoon demon was a little nervous. He focused really hard. Everyone stared at him, making him more tense than he already was. He started with the fingers; they twitched, and before he knew it he had made a fist. It worked, his fingers moved. The spectators smiled.

Next was his wrist, where he made little circles with his hand. Finally he lifted his arm, lifting it up higher and higher. He did it, he could move his left arm. He had his arm back.

The group started laughing, happy for the little devil.

Dr. Johnson interrupted the happy moment, as there was one more thing that needed to happen. He was mostly looking at Henry as he drawled, "You successfully endured the IV. This technically means that you should be one hundred percent waterproof, but I'm afraid we still need to test that. If you agree with it, of course."

"Way to kill the mood, Anthony." Rudy stared at his friend with his arms crossed in front of his chest.

Bendy laughed. "Well, we need to find out sooner or later, might as well do it now. But how are you going to do it? You're not gonna soak me with a hose, are you?"

"No, no, nothing like that. How would you feel about taking a shower? I heard you like rain, and a shower feels the same way. You can come right from underneath it if it hurts you. What do you think?"

Bendy looked hopefully at his dad; he really wanted to try the shower, he liked how Anthony described it.

Henry was doubtful, but keeping in mind the wise words of his son, he nodded. Bendy grinned. The nurse helped Bendy into the wheelchair again. The demon was fine now that he had his arm back, but since he still had that mild fever, they wanted to keep him as rested as possible.

Anthony led the way, guiding everyone towards the showers. He made sure the place was abandoned before he let the group inside.

The nurse turned on one of the showers, making sure not to get herself wet. As the water was running, the toons felt a little uneasy. The nurse gestured for the cartoon demon to stand under the shower.

Bendy walked towards it, but right before he came in contact with the water he glanced at his family one more time; they were giving him a supportive look. Bendy took a deep breath and went to stand under the running water with his eyes closed.

The little devil felt warm. He relished when every drop hit his body. He didn't feel pain, and slowly opened his eyes to see the water running down his body. It didn't hurt and he wasn't melting. It worked. He was water resistant. He was so happy he started to have a laughing fit. A wave of relief filled the room, but no one was as relieved as the animator; his children would finally be able to live normal lives without needing to stay away from water.

Henry looked at Anthony. "I guess I owe you an apology. In all honesty, I didn't think you were able to do it, but you did—that and so much more. Not only did you recreate the ink, helping the toons in the future, but you were actually able to turn them waterproof. I can't thank you enough for that. You have no idea how much this means to me, how much this means for them."

Dr. Johnson shook his head. "No need to apologise. The toons are your family and you're just worried about them, as a father should be. The fact that I don't have experience treating living cartoons, and that we're technically more studying them at this point than just treating them, isn't helping either. But not only as a doctor but also as a friend, I can personally swear that whatever happens in the future, I'll always be ready to help treat the toons. They're my friends too."

Henry, Alice, Boris, and even Bendy from underneath the shower, all stared at the doctor with a newfound feeling of trust and respect. Anthony blushed under the attention. The nurses, Rudy, and Tina started to chuckle at the sight until the doctor glared at them.

"So, uh, Bendy? I know a shower can feel good, but I still recommend that you don't stand under it too long it for the time being. Even for humans, contact with water for too long isn't that good, it makes our skin rather soft and wrinkly."

Reluctantly, the cartoon demon came out from underneath the running water. The air was cold on his skin. The nurse instantly offered him a towel and helped him to get dry; that's when she noticed the fever had gone up again. When she informed the doctor, she helped Bendy back into the wheelchair.

"Okay, so this is what's gonna happen. Bendy and Henry, you two go back to your room and rest a little, you guys need it after all that happened. In the meantime, if it's all right with you, I would like to give Boris and Alice the same IV as—"

"I'm gonna stop you right there, buddy. I was there when Bendy got his IV, what makes you think I won't want to be there for Alice's and Boris'?" Henry looked at the cartoon wolf and angel and winked at them. The duo smiled.

"Yeah, I wanna be there too. Gotta keep an eye on my bro and sis."

Hearing those words, Henry stared at Bendy. He felt so proud, they were becoming a normal family.

Anthony sighed. "Okay, okay, you win. You can stay. But promise me you'll rest after that. I'm looking at you, mister Stein. How can your bruises heal when you keep moving around? Bendy should be fine, but I'll still be more at ease when his fever goes away."

Alice looked at Anthony. "Does this mean we'll get a fever as well?"

"That's something only time can tell, sweetie. The fever is only a side effect, it could be that there won't be side effects for you two, or maybe even different side effects. Now that I think about it, it'll probably be for the best to observe you for a few hours after the IV as well, just in case."

Johnson led the group to the same room where Bendy had donated ink and installed the toons in two chairs. The nurses prepared the IVs and hooked the toons up. The next forty five minutes they were talking about what Henry had experienced while he was kidnapped as the toons told their little adventure as well. As time passed by, it seemed Alice did not experience any side effects. Boris, on the other hand, got a fever just like the little demon. Fortunately, the doctor could easily handle a few fever cases.

Just like Bendy, the cartoon angel and the wolf were tested if they were actually waterproof. It seemed to be a success, and the group was brought back to Henry and Bendy's room. Anthony practically dragged the animator to his bed while the little devil laid down on the other bed as well. Alice and Boris were offered the empty wheelchairs so they could rest a little, and Rudy and Tina sat on the two chairs that were placed against the wall. The doctor left the group alone as he had other patients to attend to.

A few hours later, Anthony came back to check up on them. The results were good; Bendy's and Boris' fevers were gone, and the three toons were completely fine. Since Henry had rested a little, his nausea had gone away as well.

The next day Bendy was discharged. The medical staff were once again impressed by how fast the cartoon demon recovered. One day the little guy comes in with a missing arm, in immense pain, and the next he's walking around as if nothing happened. The staff couldn't tell if Dr. Johnson was a miracle worker or if the answer laid with the toon devil himself—he was a cartoon, after all, and to top it all off he was a demon as well.

Henry was a little less lucky. He needed a week in the hospital before he was declared healthy enough to be discharged; during that week, the toons were having the time of their lives, as Rudy had offered to take care of them. Alice, Bendy, and Boris were having sleepover parties with Tina, doing pillow fights, building camps in the house, and playing games, and every day they went to visit their dad in the hospital.

Once the week had passed, the group finally went home. It was just how they had left it. Henry found the hole in the wall, but wasn't even mad about it, because Bendy promised he would fix it—with a little help of course.

The animator made sure the alarm went up as fast as possible. While Henry and Bendy were in the hospital the police had gone to the shed to pick up Isaac, only to find him gone. The shed was completely abandoned, unless one counted the blood and ink splatters on the wooden interior. The police were patrolling the streets of the village in search of him, and the family was devastated by the news.

Later that day it was storming outside. The sky was cloudy, making the outside dark, and rain fell from the clouds. Ever since the little demon became waterproof he wanted to walk in the rain. He asked Henry if he could go on a walk while Alice and Boris were watching TV.

"I don't know Bendy, Isaac is still out there. It's dangerous."

"Oh come on, you know I've wanted to do this since the first time I saw rain. Besides, the police are patrolling the streets. I don't think we're going to see him anytime soon."

The animator sighed. He smiled softly. "Okay, I know this is important to you. You can go…"

Bendy cheered.

"...BUT, there are a few rules. Number one, DON'T go too far. Second, you'll be back within one hour."

"DEAL!" Bendy ran up to the animator, hugged him, and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks, Dad."

Henry chuckled. The little demon let go and ran to the front door. Just as he went outside he could hear Henry shout, "Remember, back in one hour!"

"OKAY!" Bendy replied as he closed the front door and ran into the rain. He looked up as drops fell down his face. It felt nice, but he had to admit he was a little cold. Yet he continued the journey as the water hugged his body. While he was outside, Bendy couldn't forget Henry's words: "Isaac is still out there."

The cartoon devil couldn't take it anymore, he was too curious. Against his better judgement, he ignored Henry's first rule and ran toward the meadow. After a while, the shed slowly came into sight. The bad weather turned for the worse as it started to thunder and lightning lit up the sky. Bendy went through the hole he had made with Henry's car.

It was dark inside the shed. He could barely see a thing until the lightning created light enough to see.

A scream filled the air as the cartoon devil stumbled back. The scene in front of him gave him instant flashbacks to Joey Drew Studios. The place was covered with ink splatters, and on the wooden floor was a big ink puddle with inky footprints leading towards the hole where Bendy was standing. This was not how they'd left Isaac.

There were a few ink splatters from when his arm was melting, but not like this. The ink puddle with the footprints was new too. The demon assumed they belonged to Isaac, but what really gave him the creeps was what he saw next. On the wooden wall, above Isaac's makeshift bed, was written in big inky letters:

FOUND YOU...

Tears formed in Bendy's eyes as he took a few steps back, leaving him standing in the rain. As fast as his legs could carry him, the little demon dashed home. He opened the front door, ran inside, slammed the door shut behind him, and locked it tight.

"Bendy? Is that you? I know I said you should be back within the hour but I didn't expect you back this early." Henry was standing in front of the cartoon devil, eyeing him. The animator couldn't tell there were tears running down Bendy's face since they blended with the raindrops, dripping off his body. Henry noticed, however, that Bendy was spooked by something. He quickly ran upstairs to the bathroom and came back with a towel.

He started to dry off his son, quietly asking, "What happened? You look like you saw a ghost or something."

Bendy wasn't sure if he should tell Henry what he had seen. It wasn't that he didn't trust his father, but he wasn't sure if the animator would believe him. He wasn't even sure if he himself believed what he had seen. Besides, if he were to tell Henry about the shed, he would need to confess that he had broken Henry's first rule of not wandering away too far.

Eventually the demon just shook his head. "N-no, everything's fine."

Henry raised an eyebrow. "You sure about that?"

Bendy nodded.

The animator sighed. "Okay then, go sit with Alice and Boris. I made hot chocolate and we were just about to watch a movie."

The little devil gave his father a weak smile, then ran to the sofa and sat in between Alice and Boris while Henry went to the kitchen to get the beverages. The angel and the wolf glanced at each other as they too noticed something was up with Bendy. However, they decided to leave him alone for now.

Henry gave each of them a cup of hot cocoa and sat next to them. The family spent the rest of the evening watching the movie. It was so cozy that even Bendy felt a little better.

Little did they know they were being watched from outside. A mysterious figure was looming behind the bushes, watching the family sitting on the sofa. Covered in the black of the shadows, the figure made low moaning sounds. And eventually, it turned around and limped away.

***The End (?)***


End file.
